RUSSIAN PUSH

Grey River Argus, 22 October 1943, Page 5

RUSSIAN PUSH

INTO WEST UKRAINE ENEMY’S QUANDARY Retreat or be Trapped 1 MELITOPOL BATTLE CONTINUES GERMANS’ DESPERATE STAND. LONDON, Oct. 20. A Soviet communique slated: Russian forces fought street battles in Melitopol and occupied several quarters. The enemy suffered heavy losses. . . Moscow radio says: Fighting in the area and city of Melitopol is going on with undiminished vigour. On Wednesday at dawn , the Germans opened a terrific artillery barrage. Then motorised infantry and a very large number of tanks attacked the Soviet troops in three directions. The enemy attempted to break through to a river crossing to cut off Soviet troons who were fighting in the city and south-west of it. During the day Soviet artillery in the vicinity of the city disabled 30 enemy tanks and wiped out a regiment of motorised infantry. Soviet artillery shelling concentrations of enemy forces inflicted huge losses. Tne enemy changed his tactics 'and attacked with small tank groups. Soviet artillery repelled 10 counter-attacks. Not a single enemy tank reached the Soviet defence lines. The British United Press says that every street in Melitopol is a lane of death as the Germans pour deadly fire from buildings they have converted into miniature fortresses. Stone walls which the Russians built round their houses are considerably helping the Germans. Moscow “Red Star” said: The Germans are frenziedly defending Melitopol in order to give the Germans in the Crimea, who include 250,000 wounded, a chance to evacuate. The Germans have started the mass evacuation by sea of all people, animals and moveable property from the west coast of the Crimea. Berlin radio reported that the Russians north of Melitopol have breached the German lines, but claimed that the breach has been sealed off. (Rec. 12.25.) LONDON, Oct. 21. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says: German forces are fighting grimly to retain the hold on Melitopol, but are showing signs of weakening. Heaw fighting is still going on inside of the city. It has not been smashed up as badly as Stalingrad. The Germans there are finding themselves in an increasinglv difficult position. The Moscow radio said: “The' capture of two heights has improved Russian positions in Melitopol. Russian forces have taken more blocks of houses. They repelled seventeen German counter-attacks. The enemy Is suffering enormous losses in relentless street battles. The Moscow “Red Star” says: “The Germans were forced to bring up from the rear many special battaions, . some of which are being thrown into action straight from the march.” Greater German Danger RUSSIAN ADVANCE BEYOND DNIEPER BEND. LONDON, Oct. 20. A Soviet communique stated: — Russian forces made gains southwest of Kremenchug, advancing from three to six miles, and occupied a number of places, including three railway stations. One report says: Russian forces which broke through south-east of Kremenchug have advanced 30 miles in three days and are now 60 or 70 miles in the rear of the German armies holding the Dnieper (Bend. In an advance of nine to 12 miles the Pued Army cut the main railway running west from Dnepropetrovsk by capturing the key junction of Pyatikhatka. The town fell after three Germans divisions had failed to check the Russian advance. Correspondents in Moscow say that ■ a vital escape railway from Dnepropetrovsk has been cut on .a stretch of 17 miles. Russian, armoured forces are fanning out in the direction of Krivoirog, the greatest iron and steel centre in Russia. They are 35 miles from Krivoirog, and the whole German defence system is crumbling. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent stated: A frontal assault which smashed open the 16-mile deeo defences of the Dnieper line south-east of Kremenchug has carried the. Red Army 50 miles into the Dnieper Bend, where thev are rapidly overrunning main German communications. The Russians are only 30 miles from an important' communication centre, Snamenka. Other Russian forces are driving down the 40mile branch line from Pyatikhatki to Krivoirog. Enemy tank and infantry counter-attacks launched from scores of points are not slowing down the Russian onslaught, German resistance is already showing signs of weakness, although thousands of troops have been flung into the breach. The British United Press says: The Russians, although coming up against l tremendous German reserves. are driving toward the great metallurI gieal centre of Krivoirog and inten- . sifying the offensive all along the Dnieper south of Kremenchug. The whole of the German defences inside ihe Dnieper are beginning to crumble. The Red Army, exploiting the seizure of Pyatikhatki, have cut the railway •between Snamenka and Dnepropetrovsk for 17 miles. Russian tanks and motorised infantry are fanning out beyond the railway. The Luftwaffe is making several thousand sorties daily attempting to check the Russian advance south-west of Kremenchug. Another report stated: As the result of the cutting of the railway behind Dnepropetrovsk, the Germans in the lower Dnieper Bend are in great peril. The Russian offensive from Kremenchug made great headway in the last few days, .and the i great iron ore centre of Krivoirog and the manganese mines of Nikopol are almost within reach. The present vast Russian design is compared in London to the offensive on the Don-Volga front last year, when I the circumstances in some ways were similar.

Messages from Russia indicate the Germans have been ordered, as at Stalingrad to hold the present positions at all costs, and a bloody battle raging at Melitopol is bearing this out. Whether the Germans at Dnepropetrovsk and on the lower Dnieper, however, remembering what haonened at Stalingrad, will carry matters to such extremes remains to be seen. The peril of their situation mav perhaps be judged from a statement by “Izvestia” that Kiev, Zhitomir and Lwow now await liberation. Lwow is fully three hundred miles west of Kiev. The most serious immediate menace is the thrust from Kremenchug, coinciding with strong pressure through Zaporozhe and Melitopol. This seems likely to pinch out the

Germans in Dnepropetrovsk. The second threat is made by crossings of the middle Dnieper below and above Kiev. The strongest pressure in this sector comes from the north towards and behind Kiev. A further advance here threatens to make untenable the i whole German position in the Ukraine and the Crimea. The third double thrust is aimed at both sides of Gomel, and seems likely to envelop that city. The exploitation of this third movement threatens not only the Dnieper line but the rest of the front. Correspondents in Moscow say that with the Red Army relentlessly flaying the surviving German defenders of Kiev and Melitopol, General von Manstein must, within hours, make I the fateful decision whether to make | a fighting withdrayal from the Dmel per Bend, involving the loss of thousands of square miles of territory, or risk a trap greater than Stalingrad. According to Moscow “Red Star,” Russians stormed a German hedgehog position at Vishgorod, three and a-half miles north of Kiev. The British United Press says that the Germans show every intention of fighting to the last at Kiev. The Red Army is therefore concentrating on encircling Kiev, while shelling the direct route into the city. The Swedish paper “Afton Bladet’s” Berlin correspondent stated: News of the Russian break-through southeast of Kremenchug the blackest day in Berlin since the outbreak. The Finnish radio, quotine- its Berlin correspondent’s description of the scene at the German Foreign Office Press conference when the Russian break-through was announced, said “You could hear a pin drop when Major Sommerfeld said, ‘Unfortunately, I have to report that the Russians have broken through the German front.’ Sommerfeld never since Stalingrad had spoken so gravely.” It was the first time in the whole of the Russian offensive that the German military spokesman had stated the Russians had achieved an actual break-through. German commentators hitherto always wound up with a claim that breaches had been sealed off. RUSSIAN ADVANCE. HALF-WAY ACROSS THE BEND (Rec. 10.55) LONDON, Oct. 21. A communique at Moscow announced the capture of Zheltiyevody. This place is 28 miles from Krivoirog, bringing Russian forces halfwav across the Dnieper Bend. The Germans are rushing troops from other 'sectors to the break-through area. DNIEPER BEND STRUGGLE MORE INTENSE. (Rec. 12.25.) LONDON, Oct. 21. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent stated: The “Pravda” says: Fighting at the Dnieper Bend south-east of Kremenchug is like that in Stalingrad. One village has changed hands six times. The Germans to regain it counter-attacked twenty-eight times. The ground is littered with tanks and guns. Our wedge is eating deeper and deeper into the western Ukraine. The German High Command is expecting a large-scale Russian offensive between Leningrad and Lake Ladoga, where important enemy concentrations of men and tanks have been observed.” GERMAN COMMENTS LONDON, Oct. 20, The Berlin radio commentator, Captain Sertorius, declared the result of the battle south-east of Kremenchug is of integral importance for further developments not only in the Dnieper Bend but also in adjacent sectors. He added that the Russians had resumed their frontal assaults north of the Sea of Azov, doubtless synchronised with the attempt to break through towards Krivoirog. . The German News Agency’s military ‘commentator says that the Rus-, sians are using flame-throwers and suner-heavv tanks in a gigantic battle north-west of Dnepropetrovsk and adds that denseA'formations of Russian infantry were throughout the dav advancing against the German line, preceded by armoured spearheads Extremely ferocious battles are raging in which entire tank regiments are facing against the German line, with flame-throwers pouring out walls of fire. The battle of Kremenchug has become the biggest effort the Russians have ever undertaken. Berlin military circles do not close their eyes to the fact that much depends on the outcome. Enemy Havoc in Ukraine OVER TWELVE MILLION RUSSIANS KILLED. STATEMENT AT MOSCOW. (Rec. 5.45.) MOSCOW, Oct. 20. After showing a film dealing with the recapture of the Ukraine, the producer, Alexander Dovzhenko, told, the audience that when the Ukraine is liberated, it will be found that from twelve to fifteen million Russians have been killed there. He said that the Germans in the last tew weeks had been systematically _ driving the Russians ahead of their retreat. Roads from Dnepropetrovsk, Kiev and other places were crowded with evacuees. Those who were unable to keep pace were ruthlessly killed. He said the Germans had either partially 'or .apmp.leitely demolished every town east of the Dnieper River. With the Germans in their (present mood, lit was .likely that no citv and no village west of the Dnieper River would escape. The Germans had been systematic in their destruction in the beautiful citv of Kiev, and now were laying the citv waste. Russians who escaped from Kiev declared that the Germans , had assorted ithah /they would not leave a stone standing.