ADVANCE ON MINSK

Grey River Argus, 1 July 1944, Page 5

ADVANCE ON MINSK

Bobruisk Taken

ENEMY LOSSES ENORMOUS LONDON, June 29

M. Stalin announced that Russian c forces captured Bobruisk, the last . remaining bastion of the German de- _ fence line in White Russia. A communique stated; Therewere 16,000 of the enemy killed and 18,000 taken prisoner in the (Bobruisk action. In the direction of Minsk the I Russians fought a way to Beresina River, north of Borisov on a 35- i mile front, taking over 200 places. > Russians in the Polotsk sector cap- - tured Usachi, 24 miles south of Polotsk besides 150 other places. They t also ’ ’ cut the Polotsk-Molodechng c railway. This is a section of the ' Neval-Byelostok-Warsaw trunk line and is .a lateral line supplying the Germans on the Minsk front The Red Army west of Mohilev, continu- < ino- to pursue the routed enemy, ad- J vanced 20 miles and captured over . 50 places, including Behm, 30 miles . north-west of Mohilev. The Russians forced the Drut River at a number : of points. . . ,' The Red Army is pressing towards Minsk, after capturing Mohilev, the fourth German stronghold in White Russia to fall in less than a week. Minsk is about 100 miles due west from Mohilev on the trans-contin-ental railway leading to Warsaw and beyond. When Osipovichi, 60 miles south-east of Minsk, was occupied earlier, it meant encirclement oi five German dvisions at Bobruisk. Russians are also advancing on Minsk along a railway line from Orsha, which fell earlier. Germans are now cleared from the Dnieper along its whole length. The Red Air Force was out in strength pounding targets at Minsk and beyond. Reuter's Moscow correspondent says: Three Central Russian armies of’ the White Russian front are converging in a concentrated drive for Minsk. Two other spearheads north and south are driving straight ahead to by-pass Minsk and nip its communications far to the rear. General Bagramyan’s army, in the north, is heading directly for Vilna, 100 miles to the north-west of Minsk, and General Rokossovsky, in the south, is striking towards ‘Baranovichi, 70 miles south-west of Minsk. The German News Agency s commentator, von Hammer, stated that the Russians had reached the neighbourhood of Slutsk, 60 miles cue south of Minsk. The British United Press correspondent at Moscow states. All reports from the front tell a tremendous story of German disaster and defeat, of countless casualties, and cf units beaten and destroyed. Red Army generals who planned tne campaign were astounded when they saw some of the results at the points of the worst German defeats. For example, in one sector a Germa artillery unit, escaping from Orsha took to 'lanes across peat nogs, where Chernyakov’s tanks and tommy-gunners ambushed them. Observers following up after the tide of war ha’d passed on found an inextricable mass of dead men, caits, horses, rifles, guns and lorries A train of shattered supply lorries , stretched for over two miles. General Bagramyan destroyed five divisions at Vitebsk, General Zakharov broke 12 divisions at Mohilev and destroyed the remnants of them between the Dnieper and the Drut Rivers, while General Rokossovsky encircled and destroyed five more divisions in the . Bobruisk offensive. Fierce moppingup operations are at present yping ion south-eastward of Bobruisk against the entrapped Germans. In the face of the combined effect of these disasters it is not believed that the Germans will be able to put up t a full-fledged resistance at Minsk. ; Russian advanced units are. only 35 ■ miles from Minsk The fastest advance is being made in the south- ; east and south, where an outflank- > ing movement is beginning against ■ the German forces based at Minsk. I The Russian columns east and northl east are only 40 miles away. The , Russians are strongly supported oj - low-level fighters and fightei-bornb- . ere which flew 3000 sorties yesterday against the retreating Germans. . A massed flight of planes is also ’ driving a path ahead of the Russians pushing down the Minsk highwav from Odessa. . Russian fighters .are fmm airfields at

already operating irom airneius Mohilev. Illustrating the speed or , the Russian advance a Russian war j reporter after a flight over the White Russian front said: “I have seen nothing comparable in three years of war. There is smoke; as far as the horizon, with guns and tanks through, the red June dust. Great Red Armft columns are moving in all direc Jins, splitting _ and encircling the lenemy’s resistance points, then agJin joining up and continuing the*k westward advance. i Every time to refuel the : p’lots had toFq - -?aw their maps, be- • cause thjH'Srit was changing so ■ rapidly.Stormovik pilot said: ■ ‘We x'M'e ordered off because en troops had already broken ■ mto rthe town. AU we were able to ; ao ’ivhs to dm our wings to the ini and fly on to the next' tarMw<io c cow radio broadcast a decree ■PLhed bv -M, Stalin promoting iGen to the rank of Marshal.'. QpJkossovsky is six feet four inches'

tall and is knowh as the Red Army’s boy general, because of his youthful appearance. , The Polish Telegraph Agency states that the Germans have begun, to build fortifications in and around < Warsaw in order to check the Russian advance and as a secuiitv measure against a Polish rising. Gestapo centres and police stations within Warsaw in order to check the Kus- ; strong-points for street fighting. Finnish Front ‘ KARELIAN CENTRE TAKEN \ BY RUSSIANS. LONDON, June 29. M Stalin in an’order of the day, y. stated: Russian troops on the Kare-. lian front have, liberated the capitaLJ Karelo (the Finnish Republic of Petrozavodsk .on Lake and cleared the railway along its cnt'i.ve line runs from Mur Leningrad. A stated Russian dc-CD oui-fl.ank'ng with the nartv on the Onega liberated j ter clearing the ro\’-M ui'inansk troops ocr-unied station of KodopoW: 'a ; .