Viazma Outflanked By Capture of Byeloi

Manawatu Times, Volume 68, Issue 60, 12 March 1943, Page 5

Viazma Outflanked By Capture of Byeloi

(British Official Wireless) RUGBY, Mar. 10. A special Russian communique states: On Wednesday our troops, continuing to develop their offensive, reoccupieu the town of Byeloi in the Smolensk region. The booty captured is being counted. The capture of Byeloi, which is 75 miles north-east of Smolensk, the great German base in Central Russia means that the Russians have now outflanked Viazma from the north. A London cable states: In the great tank and infantry battle, before Kharkov, the fighting is growing hourly in intensity, as the Germans ceaselessly thrust against the narrow front. The German counter-offensive, aiming to retake the city, began on February 21, employing a total of about 20*0,000 men, half of which were reported to be fresh from the west, backed up by considerable armour. The Germans gained important successes in the early stages, but the Russian opposition is now stiffening, and General Golikov is bringing in every possible anti-tank gun and anti-tank rifle. The Germans are fruitlessly doing their utmost to cross the North Donetz, which at the nearest point is 18 miles from Kharkov. The main German concentration is south of Kharkov. A heavy thrust is also being made against the Kliar-kov-Sumy railway. The German counter-offensive caught the Russian armoured spearheads “on the wrong foot,” because the sudden thaw prevented the main force from rapidly moving up to consolidate the spearheads’ gains. The spearheads, however, put up a stubborn resistance enabling the main force to take up positions before Kharkov. The transport problem is probably still difficult, because the Red Army before the thaw largely relied on road transport for its 350-mile push from the Volga. The Germans appear to hold the initiative over the front extending 100 miles southward of Kharkov, but the Red Army forces retain the initiative in other sectors of the Russian front. German Claims To-day’s German High Command communique states: The German attack westward and north-westward of Kharkov continues to gain ground. Our attacking division reached the objectives set for the day. The communique refers to the embittered Russian counterattacks. Mr. Morley Richards, writing in the Daily Express, says that the dispatch of German troops from the central front to the Donetz may explain the Nazi success in the south and the Russian success in the centre. Examining the German advance on the Donetz, Mr. Richards says that there is no Teason to believe that Khakov is in danger. ✓ With the German army counterattacking in the Donetz the Soviet Press has reopened the campaign for a second front. The Pravda says that because there is no second front Hitler is bringing reserves from France, Holland, and other occupied countries to the Russian front. The military correspondent of the New York newspaper P.M. says that the strengthened German resistance is due to the transference of a large number of Nazi troops from Western Europe and adds: “This is significant ns most of them were reserves held in readiness to meet a second front. The Germans have established defence positions between Riga and Odessa which are parallel with the western-most banks of the Dnieper, through White Russia to the Black Sea. # “Almost nil military observers believe that this is the line on which Hitler will make his most heroic effort. These fortifications are the test ditch.

If the Nazis are forced back that far they will have relinquished Esthonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Donetz Basin, and the Ukraine, every inch of ground within the .Soviet frontiers. They will not rlo this without a struggle of epic proportions.