RUSSIAN FRONT

Grey River Argus, 6 April 1943, Page 1

RUSSIAN FRONT

HOW IT RUNS NOW Soviet’s Account [British Official Wireless! RUGBY, April 4. Details of a Soviet information bureau map, showing the Russian line as it was on March 31, are given in a Moscow message. The front line runs from the southern outskirts of Leningrad to a point on the Novgorod railway 80 miles north-north-west of Novgorod. It then turns upwards to a point eight miles south of Schluesselburg. It runs eight miles due east, 10 miles south-south-east, six miles west, four miles south-west and four miles south, and then winds eastwards round Kiris ha. From the fringes, of Kinisha the front runs south-south-west and cuts the Mos-cow-Leningrad railway six miles to the south-south-east of Chudovo. It 1 bulges westwards for 16 miles, and then goes due’ south past the walls of Novgorod to Lake Ilmen. From the' middle of the south shore of Lake Ilmen the front runs south round the iringes of Staraya Russa, and then goes southwest to a point nine miles west of Velikye Luki. It curves eastwards to the northern fringe of Velizh, runs east-south-east and cuts the Viazma-Smolensk ’railway- 24 miles of Yartsevo. The nearest point to- Yartsevo lies north-north-east at a distance of about eight miles. From the Viazma-Smolensk railway the' front runs south-south-oast, to a point 60 miles east-south-east of Smolensk, after which it turns sharply east, and cuts the SukhinnichiSmolensk awiiway about 'l3O miles due west of Tula. It then bulges westward round the west fringe nt Kirov. From Kirov the line runs southeast to the eastern fringe of Mtsensk, and deviates more sharply to a point about 40 miles due east of Orel, and then turns south-west to the KurskOrel railwav. The front runs due west 24 miles, and then turns eight miles west-north-west and then west-south-west to the eastern outskirts of Sievsk. From S'ievsk the line runs south-south-east past the eastern outskirts of Ryhsy, and then, with a more easterly deviation, to a point 6 miles east-south-east of Sumy, after which it runs 66 miles due east, to the Kursk-Kharkov railway. it then turns south past the east fringe of Byelgorod. The Red Army holds the whole of the east bank of the Donetz to a point about 30 miles east of Kharkov, and has an important hold on the west bank in the elbow north-west of Izyum, which is still in Russian hands. The front follows a line from the Donetz to a point 16 miles northwest of Voroshilovgrad, after which it runs more or less regularly south to the Sea of Azov, eight miles east of. Taganrog.- From there the Red Army holds the whole of the Azov coast, to a point eight miles northeast of Temruyk, from which the line runs .almost to the Kuban River, and then due east parallel with the river.' The front intersects the Kuban River 50 miles west of Krasnodar, turns south-westward to a point 20 miles east-north-east of Novorossiisk, and then runs clue west 10 miles. From there the front runs 10 miles southwest, and terminates on the eastern outskirts of Novorossiisk.