FATEFUL BATTLE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXIV, Issue 38, 13 January 1944, Page 2

FATEFUL BATTLE

3.45 P.M. EDITION

NAZIS DEFEND RAILWAY. (N.Z. Press Association —Copyright.) (Rec. 12.55 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 12 • The Red Army has smashed heavy German counter-attacks on the Ukrainian front, where the Russians are thrusting for the River Bug and the Rumanian border, says the Moscow radio. The Germans' attacks were launched with spearheads .sometimes using 400 tanks, hut they were hurled hack and dispersed. Router's Moscow correspondent says that von Mannstein, after 21 days of unbroken retreat, has halted at last on the north bank of the River Bug, which is his most vital sector. He is obviously determined to make a stand at the approaches to his lifeline—the Odessa-Lwow railway. Entrenched infantry and armoured concentrations are meeting the Red Array spearheads probing towards the Bug from a number of points. The Scandinavian Telegraph Bureau quotes a Berlin military spokesman as saying: "The battle for Vinnitsa, covering the approaches to the Odessa-Lwow railway, will decide the fate of the - whole of the Ukraine. German reinforcements have been massed in this sector to meet the enormous Russian concentrations."

The big new Russian advance in the Mozyr sector was announced in tonight's Soviet communique, which reads: "The Red Army Th the Mozyr sector launched an offensive and after two days fighting penetrated the strongly-fortified defence lino on a 20-milc front of'a depth of ten miles, liberating over 30 inhabited places, including Kozlovichy (20 miles south of Bobruisk), a'.so Domanovichi (15 miles north of Ealinovichi). Troops of the First Ukrainian Front captured Sarny and other inhabited places, including Dombrovitsa (17 miles north of Sarny). The Russians south-west of Novogrnd Voiynfk continued their offensive and captured over 50 places, including Pishrhev (on the old Polish border, 15 miles west of Novogrod Volynsk). The Red Army east of Vinnitsa repelled heavy tank and infantry attacks, and south of Bye'.aya Tsei'kov occupied a number of localities. The Russians west and north-west of Kirovgrnd drove the enemy from several fortified centres of resistance."