Important New Gains in Red Army’s Forward Surge

Manawatu Times, Volume 68, Issue 223, 20 September 1943, Page 5

Important New Gains in Red Army’s Forward Surge

Advances in All Sectors of 600-mile Front

Increasing Threat to Crimea and Kuban Forces United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright. Received Sunday, 10.16 p.m. LONDON, September 19. The Russians have made important new gains in all sectors of the 600-mile central and southern fronts in the latest forward surge in which they freed a hundred square miles of territory. The Red Army in two swift strokes has cut the Poltava-Kiev railway at several points, which is the enemy’s last supply line to his forces east of Kiev, and has seized the key junction of Pavlograd. Other forces surging across the Dnieper steppes have captured Pologi, the centre of the railway network east of the Dnieper Bend. Supplies to the German forces east of Kiev must now take a tortuous route by the secondary railways. The Germans have lost communication with their forces east of the Dnieper Bend as Poltava is cut off from the rear. With Pologi in their hands the Russians have reached the last German defence line 50 miles from the Crimea railway. The capture of Pavlograd has reduced the Dnieper escape gap for the Germans in the Donetz salient and the Crimea and Kuban to 30 miles.

The Sunday Times’ Moscow correspondent says there is every prospect that the Germans in the main will be pushed back to the Dnieper line before the winter except possibly in the north and the extreme south. The Germans will probably put up a determined resistance to save the Crimea, but their prospects of holding a large bridgehead on the left bank of the Dnieper are worsening daily.

A Moscow communique says: “The Bed Army on Saturday in the Kiev sector advanced nine to twelve and a half miles and captured more than 230 inhabited places, including Mirgorod. The Russians in the Zaporozhe and Melitopol sectors advanced six to nine miles and occupied 120 inhabited places, including the town and railway junction of Pologi and the town of No gain a. “The Red Army in the Dnepropetrovsk sector advanced three to six miles and captured the town and large railway junction of Pavlograd as well as 150 inhabited places. The Russians in the Poltava and Krasnograd sectors advanced one and a half to three and a half miles and captured the town and large railway station of Ramadan, also southwest of Nogorod and Syeversk, they advanced nine to twelve miles. Our troops west and southwest ol Bryansk captured Sukovka, 35 miles northwest of Bryansk on the BryanskRoslavl railway, also Panilovitsa, 13 miles southwest of Bryansk, and in the Smolensk-Roslavl sectors, advanced three and a half miles and capturen more than fifty inhabited places.

tinue to fall into Russian hands. The Times says that perhaps seven or eight German and Rumanian divisions are still holding Anapa and the marshy lever-stricken delta of the Kuban. The fall of Novorossisk further imperils their hold on the Caucasian bridgehead and the Russian Black Sea fleet is likely to play an increasingly active part in further operations. The Times concludes that the German retreat between Bryansk and Mariupol may have been planned in the sense that the decision to retire was taken after the costly failure of the great armoured offensive on the flanks of the Kursk salient, but it is incredible that the German High Command proposed to retreat so far during the two months following that disaster. The Red Army, according to the Exchange Telegraph Agency’s Moscow correspondent, has cut the BryanskRoslavl railway. The Moscow radio says the Germans in the Pavlograd area are abandoning tanks, guns and equipment in their retreat before the Russian motorised forces who have outflanked and cut off the German remnants. The Russians are reported to have reached Ternovka nine miles from Pavlograd. Bitter fighting in the Pavlograd area is still going on. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says the Russians who are not less than 45 miles from Kiev have broadened the wedge they have driven into the German fortified zone protecting the Ukranian capital. One Russian column almost surrounded the town of Priluki. The Russians after crossing the Chap-lino-Berdyansk railway advanced to within 40 miles of the great industrial centre of Zaporozhe. The Russians with the capture of Tishky, seven miles north of Mubny station, cut off the German garrison at Poltava from the main base of Kiev. General Malinovsky’s army is now only 30 miles from Melitopol, the key to the Crimea. The Russians in the south are pushing from Novorossisk towards Anapa. The latest reports from Novorossisk say that no civilians were found there. It is not known whether the inhabitants were killed or deported. Columns of guns and troops are moving along the Anapa road for the attack on the German bridgehead, the last German foothold in the Kuban.

“The Russians in the Kuban and west of Novorossisk, stormed and captured a number of strong centres oi resistance, Including Kievskaya.’’ Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says guerrillas, harassing the retreating German columns, have rescued 20,000 citizens of Bryansk, who were being marched into captivity. Less destruction than usual was perpetrated at Bryansk. The Germans set fire to the town at several points and blow up a number oi factories, but their main concern apparently was to avoid being caught in a trap.

The German retreat goes on without pause from the Smolensk sector to the Sea of Azov, says a Moscow message. The London Times says events have moved swiftly in the past four days and it compares the Russian advance to an advancing tide which flows inexorably forward, turning, isolating and ultimately submerging the islands oi resistance which it encounters. Pouring swiftly forward at some points, at others banking up to break through and over obstacles, the Russians are surging on towards Kiev on the northern and southern flanks of their wedge. Strategically important positions con