Bearing Down on Smolensk

Manawatu Times, Volume 68, Issue 209, 3 September 1943, Page 5

Bearing Down on Smolensk

Received Friday, 12.25 a.m. LONDON, September 2. The Bussians, driving down the railway from Yelnia, are now fewer than forty miles from Smolensk, says Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. The Germans are putting up a stiff resistance from a network of hedgehog fortifications defending the city. Izvestia, describing how the latest Russian drive burst through the German Donbas line, says reconnaissance planes photographed the defence system which -was studied in detail. Russian tanks struck at a point chosen for the break-through. Motorised infantry followed and then cavalry poured into the breach. The German defences were tackled from the flank and from the rear and soon the whole became dislocated. Fighting was bitter but split into several independent engagements, the enemy command having early in the operation lost grip of the situation. Krasnyluch fell ■when two Russian columns aiter sharp fighting outflanked and threatened to encircle the town. The Berlin radio says the Bussians are planning large-scale landings in the Kuban area. This was discovered following the capture of a reconnaissance officer who came ashore near Novorossisk.