TANKS SMASH ON

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXIII, Issue 22, 24 December 1942, Page 5

TANKS SMASH ON

RUSSIANS POUR THROUGH.

GERMANS ROUTED

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright.) LONDON, Dec. 23. Correspondents in Russia have flashed the news to London that Russian tank columns have smashed through the fortified belt of the German lines in the Middle Don area and, followed by infantry, are streaming across the, open country. The Germans in some places have been completely routed.

Information from Russia shows that the German dead in the great new Middle Don offensive now total over 30,000 with more than 36,000 prisoners. During yesterday 6700 prisoners were taken. It is now revealed that the important fortified town mentioned in the latest Russian communique as being captured is Kamcnsky, which is 100 miles north-west of Millerovo, and is not the town of a similar name 40 miles south of Millerovo as previously reported. A Soviet communique states that among the many inhabited localities occupied by tho Russians are Kolcshehatoc, Nikolskoe, Morozovka, and Kamenskoye.

The German radio spoke to-night of the fighting in the Middle Don area as "one vast defensive battle", and drew a gloomy picture of greatly superior Russian armies delivering one powerful attack after another. The Stockholm correspondent of the Daily Express reports that General Golikov's and General Vatoutin's forces, converging on Millerovo from the north and east, have joined. If this report is correct, then the remaining German forces west of Klotskaya and Kalach, in the Don elbow, have now been completely encircled.

The Stockholm correspondent of the Times says reports from Moscow and Berlin indicate that tho Axis discomfiture on the Middle Don front has rapidly developed into the nearest thing to a large-scale rout since von Kleist's debaclo a year ago. FRESH ENEMY RESERVES.

The Germans state that the task of stemming the Russians has been entrusted to fresh reserves, which were en route to the front when the Russian advance began. The reserves halted when the Russians broke deeply into the defence zone, and these Germans arc now stated to be holding new positions which had been previously prepared. This German explanation implies that there is an improvised second line of defence, and that it is hoped to let the retreating and rather disordered troop 3 through the new defence line to form up behind. There is "no indication where the new front is envisaged, but it must be largely to the west of the Voronezh-Rostov railway. "With the recapture of Popovka the Russians arc once again across the Ukrainian border—tho eastern boundary of Hitler's so-called European fortress. Reutcr's Moscow correspondent says the Rod Army, with studied thoroughness, -is increasing the already tremendous scope of its victory. "Each Russian soldier is obsessed with the same idea—forward and then forward. No signs are yet apparent of a brake being applied to their progress." The Russian Command is at present avoiding a frontal assault on the trapped forces in the Don-Volga area and is concentrating on keeping the iron ring intact. The enemy, northwestwards of Stalingrad, is saving food ami ammunition as much as possible, knowing that the supply lines westwards are now in grave danger. The Moscow radio said tho Russians in Stalingrad city are clearing the Germans from budding after building. The capture of one stronglyfortified building took 29 hours of fighting.