BERDICHEV FALLS

Grey River Argus, 7 January 1944, Page 5

BERDICHEV FALLS

TO THE RUSSIANS ADVANCE INTO POLAND Russian Pincers at The Bend enemy more menaced in DNIEPER BEND. [Aust. N.Z. Press Assn.] (Rec. 8.55) LONDON, Jan. 5. M. Stalin addressed an order of the day to General Vatutin in which he said: Troops of the first Ukranian front after live days of fierce fighting, to-day carried by assault the large railway 1 , junction and key centre of enemy defences, Berdichev, (south-west .of Kiev) and the feat will be recognised in Moscow with twenty saivoes from 124 guns. A Soviet communique announced the capture of Berdichev and 60 other places in the Kiev region, including Tarascha. The Germans had clung to Berdichev, but tlhat town lost its value when it became encircled. The Germans stated they had to leave the eastern part of Berdichev in the face of attacks by superior Russian forces. Moscow reports say that the German garrison remaining in Berdichev is now in an impossible position. At one point the Russians are reoorted to be 20 miles from the important railway centre of Vinnitsa, on the Bug. Russian armies are striking south and southwest across the Ukraine on a front of 120 miles. General Vatutin’s tanks and infantry are working towards the Germanline on the Bug River, and behind enemy groups in the Dneiper bend. It is early yet to speak of the trap closing on the Germans in the bend, but their situation deteriorated seriously with the Russian capture oByelaya Tserkov. This unhinged the flank' of the enemy forces in the Dnieper bend, and freed powerful Russian forces for new advances. The latest Moscow dispatches say that the Russians have already left Byelaya Tserkov behind, in close pursuit of the defeated enemy. Moscow “Red Star” said that the capture of Pliska and dep Red Army tank thrusts into the German positions were outflanking the railway junction of Vinnitsa from the east. A Moscow message said: The Dneiper battle has reached a stage further towards its conclusion, and the battle for the River Bug came into closer perspective bv the capture of Byelaya-Tserkov. This Soviet victory has made the position of the Germans, who have been holding the right bank of the Dneiper from the southern environs of Kiev to the small Soviet bridgehead south of Persyaslavl more critical. Belaya Tserkov was the centre of a fortified zone with permanent ferro-concrete defences and steel pill-boxes of a portable tvpe. The Germans have built uo .similar areas at Kanev and Rzhishehev, on the right bank of the Dnieper, but their military value has slumped after the loss of Belaya Tserkov. - Reuter’s correspondent says: General von Mannstein, in the past 24 hours, has started determined count-er-attacks from bases in the Novograd Volynsk area. The Red Army, however, has beaten back all the ■counter-blows and is again advancing north and south of Novograd Volynsk. The Red Army is approaching the Odessa-Cracow-Berlin railwav at tihe rate of 10 miles a day. It ls~difficult to see even now how the Germans will be able to move any great proportion of their Dnieper Bend armies except through the Bessarabian Mountains into Roumania. RUSSIAN ADVANCE ON ROVNO. [Mist. A>- N.Z. Press Assn.l (Rec 6.30.) LONDON, Jan. 5. Moscow correspondent’s quoting Russian front line reports stated that the German Command, after the fall of Byelaya Tserkov, was in a precarious position at Smyela and Nikopol They said Russian forces had bitten deeply into the German defence system in the Ukraine. The target of the Russians was a railway network on which the safety of the German forces in the Dnieper bend depended. : , The Moscow correspondent of tue British United Press said: Latest reports indicate General Vatutin has decided to consolidate positions in the Novograd-Volynsk area to secure his rear between Byelaya Tserkov and the west bank of the Dnieper before pushing on towards Rovno. Most German “colonists” settled around Rovno have already moved back to the Reich. German Commissioner Koch used Rovno as headquarters from which he organised pillage in the Ukraine. All original Russian inhabitants of the town were expelled, and the town was completely turned over to Nazi settlers. Russian and Czech force s side by side fought. a way through a ouagmire to seize Byelaya Tserkov after a furious Red Army barrage disrupted the first-line defences. The Russians and Czechs, when the Germans regrouped on the second defence line, changed their dispositions, and launched a surprise attack from another ter and swept the Germans out of the town.

> .FRESH GERMAN RETREAT’ ; , INDICATED.. '

'(Rec. 12.5.) LONDON, Jan. 2. The Vichy radio has made an unusually outspoken report on the eastern front. It said: ‘lt seems that General Vatutin’s offensive is forcing the Germans to give up the entire territory south ■of the Dnieper. General Vatutin, besides using more than one million men, has considerable reserves, which have not yet been in action. i LAST .GERMAN HOLD. i MAY GO ON THE DNIEPER. (Rec. 12.10.) LONDON. Jan. 6. ■ Reuter’s Moscow correspondent stated: General Vatutin’s _ forces are firmly astride the big Kiev salient, punching hard against retreating Germans. Operations are rapidly moving to a new climax for the Germans' 5 north-western and Dnieper line Russian forces are increasingly threatening Kanev. which is the Geirnnns’ only remaining hold on the right bank of the middle Dnieper The fall of Berdichev, after five Hr fighting of extreme ferocity betweenMaSe forces, is hailed by the Soviet Press as a major victory. It enUtV open German defences proMS the approaches to the River bS Ind the Odessa-Rovno-Wilno Sway A Russian spearhead is alSdy fifteen miles north-east of below ByelatamArkov have forces, but Russian T serk f wedged into » their lines in ' SSlaces They are nearly forty south of the town. They captured six miles north-we,st

of Berdichev and battles soon developed on the outskirts of that town. The Germans increased their resistance, and counter-attacked several times a day, but lost heavily, and were compelled to roll back. Russian forces broke into the suburbs, and after street fighting the town was taken bv assault. Prisoners and booty were captured. RUSSIAN ADVANCE IN POLAND. (Rec. 8.55) LONDON, Jan. 5. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says: Late on Wednesday night a Russian military commentator, Colonel Amikov, said: Russian forces have taken the Stuez River line, and penetrated deeply in the direction ot Sarny, which is thirty-live miles west of the Polish frontier. . Moscow has not yet officially announced that the Red Army has crossed the Polish border. Berlin radio’s military commentator, Captain Sertorius, to-night, tactitly admitted Russian forces had reached the border when he declared that the Germans are preparing a defence line behind the Russian-Polish border. He said: “Vatutin’s army group, advancing beyond Olevsk and Novograd Volynsk, will be faced with the new defence line now being coni NEW RUSSIAN ATTACK. (Rec 12.16.) LONDON, Jan. 8. > A new Russian offensive m the Propoisk area, White Russia 120. miles south of Vitebsk, is reported b; the Berlin radio. The attack is designed to smash a German bridgehead east of the Dnieper,' says the radio. The Russians, after using f°g shells and putting up a heavy barracre, attacked with big f° r< ;® s , fl^ st westwards, and then northwards. Fierce battles are going on. RussianJVniagers BURNED TO DEATH BY GERMANS. CRpe 95 1 LONDON, Jan. 5. A war correspondent of i the. Moscow paper “Izvestia” following a tour of ravaged territories now being liberated, states that whole colonies of Russians were reduced to Stone Age conditions since the Lei mans swept over their areas. In three days of horse riding in the Novograd-Volynsk area, he did not see a single person, house or village. Dozens of villages were systematically burned down. Inhabitants were locked in large stables which were set on fire. At Domo.novich, 250 children were herded into a school and, burned to death, A memorial mound had alreay been erected to the children, reading “Cursed forever be the German Butchers. Peasants were driven into their own wooden houses, and the doors were nailed un and the buildings set on fire. Whole families perished, from a hundred-year-old' grandfather to a few-days-old baby. Bedridden sick were pinned to the beds by German bayonets before their homes were set on fire. Those who escaped the systematic terror were now living in huge underground burrows. Th,e correspondent says he met a man whose tongue was cut out, and a girl whose eyes were put out with needles.