MINSK TAKEN

Grey River Argus, 5 July 1944, Page 5

MINSK TAKEN

BY THE RUSSIANS Polotsk Entered LONDON, July. 3. M. Stalin in an order of the day addressed to Generals Chernyakhov and Rokossovsky, stated: Forces of the Third White Russia Front, in cooperation with forces of the First White Russia Front, as the result of a deep outflanking movement, to-day, carried by assault Minsk, capital oi the Soviet Republic of White Russia, and an important enemy stronghold in the western direction. • Moscow is saluting the victory with 24 salvoes from 324 guns. A Soviet communique stated Russian forces in the Minsk area occupied over 450 inhabited localities. The Red Army is closing in against the town and railway junction of _ Molodechno, where street fighting is raging in the suburbs. Troops on the First Baltic Front south-w'est oi Polotsk captured the district centre of Clubokoye (about 50 miles southwest of 'Polotsk) and over 400 other localities. Russians have reached the outskirts of Polotsk and have engaged Germans in street fighting. Russian troops on the Karenan front fought their way forward north and north-west of Petrozanvodsk and captured over 50 inhabited places. Troops of the Third White Russian Front, between June 28 and July 1, captured 31,265 Germans, including General Michaelis, commander of J:he 95th Infantry Division. The Russians on this front continue to wage offensive battles in the direction of Baranovichi and occupied 250 places. According to incomplete data troops of the First White Russian Front on July 1 and 2 captured 3,658 Germans, including Major-General Konrad, commander of the 36th Infantry Division. The total number of Germans captured on the First White Russian Front 'to the end of July 2 was 39,338 and on the Third White Russian Front to the end of July 33,256.

Another Moscow communique says: “The enemy is flinging in fresh reserves of infantry and tanks, but. is nowhere able to stem our advance.” It adds that an enemy group of 400 offlfflcers and men, encircled southwest of Polotsk, surrendered without firing a shot. More than 650 places have been occupied in the Soviet twin advances. The Germans on. Saturday lost 103 tanks destroyed or disabled, and 35 aeroplanes. i The Exchange Telegraph Agency s Moscow correspondent says: After the terrific mauling which the German Fifth Tank Division suffered in the Borisov area picked S.S. Gestapo iroops were flung into the battle in a hopeless effort to hold the crumbling German positions along Lie Beresina Riyer. Hundreds of German officers and men coming out of the woods from Orsha to Beresina are surrendering, sometimes to a single Russian soldier, sometimes to civilians. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent stated that Minsk was occupied. German forces there were fighting bitterly and showing obstinacy seen only when one of their vital objectives is threatened. The Germans realised the loss of Minsk would open the way for a double Russian attack across Northern Poland against Germany ifself. By mid-afternoon on Monday forward units of twin Russian forces which by-passed Minsk were reported within 140 miles of East Prussia. Russian armies north and south of Minsk are expected to swing together in order to cut off Germans who managed to escape from the city. Germans hurrying from Minsk have only secondary roads and cart tracks to cross featureless swamps and thick forests between them and their homeland. / HOW MINSK WAS TAKEN. (Rec. 9.5) LONDON, July 4. A Moscow supplementary communique said: The battle for Minsk started at dawn on Monday, when Russian tanks and infantry. broke into the eastern part of the city, which was completely occupied by midday. A Moscow “Red Star” correspondent, describing the capture of Minsk, says: “Our tank forces crossed the 1 Beresnia River, deeply outflanked defences, and overcame all attempts to hold the approaches to the city’s outskirts. Then other units penetrated the city from the east and south-easi and centre. Minsk was soon reached Street started. The Germans then were up and were destroyed piecemeal. The enemy pub up a last show of resistance on the bank oi the Svisloch River, but we crossed it I by an undamaged bridge, and outflanked the enemy forces and wiped them out. All was over by noon. We did not stop, but rushed on hotly pursuing the German forces while street fighting continued in the city. German forces already had been mangled and demoralised in previous engagements, and were unable to organise defences along the. Minsk highway or in any other direction. Disjointed German groups could not stand our tank assault. They either were captured or slain in woods. We meantime continued a deep outflanking movement, and 'surprised the Germans by appearing in the north of the' city at 2 a.m., when our tanks broke in and other forces followed. RUSSIANS ENTER POLOTSK. ' (Rec. 8.50) LONDON, July 4. . A Moscow supplementary communique stated: German forces have been making a desperate effort to hold Polotsk, and are throwing in fresh reserves, but in spite of this, our forces are closing in on the town from all sides and. have actually broken in from the south, where vicious street fighting is in progress. PURSUIT OF GERMANS. MANY DIVISIONS DISORGANISED. (Rec. 1.10.) LONDON, July 4., Reuter’s Moscow correspondent .stated: There is a wall of Soviet troops, tanks, and artillery bearing down on routed Germans beyond Minsk. Many enemy units are competely out of touch with their command, and certain of only two things, which are constant onslaughts from the air and the Red Army’s irresistible enveloping advance. Moscow “Red Star” says: A dozen German divisions devoid of leadership, abandoned equipment, and are floundering in a series of Soviet encirclements. Large booty was captured in Minsk, including a number of trains fully laden with war material. The city suffered terribly. The only undamaged houses are in the suburbs. Empty . l an fenced round with barbed wire is a 1 that is left of the Jewish quarters, inhabitants of which were murde by the Germans. Too Few Troops in Russia german RETREAT. MAY PRESAGE DEFEAT. (Rec. 9.40) ■ ~LONDON, July 4. The “Daily Telegraph’s” military commentator. Lieutenant-General H. G. Martin, discussing danger to Germany which 'the Soviet advance involves, said: General Von Bosch s front in White Russia seems to have disintegrated* in a manner strangeI lv reminiscent of the autumn pt 1918. White Russia- is a dynamic

and decisive arena. All of the fronts against Germany are interpedendentJ but the Russian front, because of its j vast scope and wide opportunities, is undoubtedly a dynamic front to which others are subsidiary. Not even the Red Army, in its immensely superior strength, could advance twenty miles a day, as it did last week, through a strongly-fortified zone, had it been faced with a resolute defence. ' This wta no pre-arranged, skilfully,-con-ducted German withdrawal according to plan. We are left with the explanation that the German High Command intended to fight this summer for a decision in the west, and allotted to its commanders on the Russian and Italian fronts a programme for delaying action, for which it has provided only a minimum of effectives. General Von Bosch did his best to hang on to White Russia, but got his front smashed. His precipitate withdrawal will compromise General Lindeman’s arm v group, further north. The speed of the Russian break-through destroyed the whole basis of German plans. The Germans, in their dilemma, may be forced to transfer reinforcements from South Russia to the north, thereby weakening the front southward of the Pripet Marshes. Nothing could suit the Red Army better, because it will soon open what it intends to be its main offensive on the Galician and Roumanian fronts, where the Germans, with their Hungarian and Roumanian satellites, must stand and fight until thev break. It is there that a final clash is likely to come.” General Martin says: “This battle in the East of which we are witnessing the opening phase, is one of the decisive battles of the world. It is true all fronts in this German war are interdependent, the Allied effort on each contributing to the victories on all other fronts. None the less, the Russian front, because of its vast scope and wide opportunities to manoeuvre, is undoubtedly a dynamic front to which the others are subsidiary. Thus, though victory will be the victory of all—and made possible only by the contributions .of the Italian and Western Fronts—the actual decision is likely to be won m the East. The plain truth is that the speed of the - Russian breakthrough in White Russia has destroyed the whole basis on which . the German High Command built its plans. COMMENTS ON THE POSITION. RUSSIANS FORCING ENEMY COLLAPSE. LONDON, July 3. Reuter's Moscow correspondent stated: Loss of Minsk, a Russian frontier city on the main highway and railway linking Warsaw, Smolensk and .Moscow, means that the Germans have lost their last great base in White Russia. About 15 miles from the frontier of 1939, Minsk was the first important Russian city to fall into Germans hands in the summer of 1941. It is a communications centre of vital importance, controlling first-class strategic routes into Central Poland and Southern Poland. The fall of Minsk came with unexpected swiftness only 10 days after the start of the Russian offensive, and 72 hours after the fall of Bobruisk threatened to outflank Minsk on the south.

The military writer of the London “Daily Express” says: The pace of the Red Army’s advance has forced great masses of Germans into the Pripet Marshes, where, they can easily be mopped up. “The German Army is now irreparably split in two with each group facing separate annihilation. The Red Army’s great sweep through White Russia may have brought the encl of the war much nearer.

A “Daily Express” correspondent with the Red Armv stated: The Russian break through in White Russia has in eight days, officially brought in 63,930 prisoners. But they are coming in all the time, and I estimate the actual total to be at least 80,000. A Moscow radio commentator, J. Yermashev, says: “It is already clear that the so-called enemy defensive front in White Russia has ceased to exist as a whole. It is being rent to pieces. German reports and commentaries give only a few words to the events in White Russia. The Hitlerites have lost their gift for words. It is a significant silence.” Moscow “Pravda” says: The fields of White Russia are a vast graveyard of German equipment. Roads are blocked by thousands of twisted and battered lorries, tanks, mobile guns and carts.

One London press correspondent stated: The Red Army is chasing Germans out of Russia so fast that battle may be on German soil within a fortnight. The whole front is being pushed westward at a speed averaging nearly two miles an hour. If this rate of advance is maintained, the Russians will cross the border of Germany approximately 450 miles west of the Russian spearhead in about 10 days. The seriousness of reverse after reverse for the Germafis can hardly be exaggerated. They must send reinforcements from reserves on the other fronts or otherwise the Russians will be able to break down remaining barriers and sweep almost at will across Poland to East Prusisa and the Baltic. The Associated Press Moscow correspondent says: Not by a long stretch of imagination—can the utter collapse <if the German armies be called a nlanned retreat or a systematic withdrawal. There are continued signs of German indecision and lack of contact between the German Divisions. The German High Command appears unable’ to halt this wholesale rout of its armies in White Russia. German commanders in almost every sector seem unable to hold back the tide of Russian tanks, cavali'y, infantry and air cover, which is growing daily. Another correspondent stated: The immediate result of the latest Russian advances and the cutting of the Minsk-Brest Litovsk and the MinskWilno lines appears to be that huge German forces—in some quarters estimated at 200,000 —are trapped without a reliable line of retreat. The “Times’s” Stockholm correspondent says the Germans west or Minsk may improvise some sort oi new line, but it cannot be an Y like as strong as the .defences .whicn the Russians have obliterated in tne past ten days. The Germansrea - est difficulty is to man and equip such lsT«d e laterlKee the Rusthe organised Polish underground army and partisans are operating effectively on a large scale, which will increase the Germans difficulties. CAPTIVE GERMAN GENERAL TO BE TRIED BY RUSSIANS AS WAR CRIMINAL. (R>ec. 7.30) LONDON, July 4. German Major-General Hammann, Commandant at Bobruisk was captured when that city fell to the Russians last week. He will be tiled, as a war criminal for a mass muidei of Russian civilians and prisoners oi war at Orel last year. General Hammann was formerly Commander at Orel, where, during 22 months of German occupation, 30,000 Russian civilians and many Red /imy prisoners of war were brutally kilied and buried in mass graves British and American who visited Orel after its Iteration in August, 1943, vouched for the truth of atrocities Germans had. committed They saw a Soviet Atrocity Commission dig up several | thousand corpses from trenches under the city prison.