Red Army Well Over Polish Border

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 6, 8 January 1944, Page 5

Red Army Well Over Polish Border

LONDON, Jan. 6.

The Red Army forces which crossed the old Polish border on Tuesday have advanced nearly 25 miles inside Poland, says one report from Moscow. With Moscow, however, still silent officially regarding any Red Army movements west of Olevsk and Novograd-Volynsk across the border, Moscow correspondents dwell on General Vatutin’s concentration on disrupting the Ukrainian railway network stretching from Rovno to Jmerinka.

The British United Press says that some of General Vatutin’s columns are thrusting westwards along the railway from Berdichev to Shepetovka, with a view to cutting the north-south line there, while farther south the Red Army is beating the Germans back along the railway from Berdichev to the important railway jimetion of Vinnitsa, where the Germans are likely to make their next stand. The German forces on the arc between Vinnitsa and Shepetovka are pouring back southwestwards over dirt roads designed to bear nothing bigger than farmers’ carts. Enemy resistance south of Berdichev is intense. German tommygunners stayed behind and held every house near the Vinnitsa highway in an effort to check the advance.

The British United Press points out that each successive step backwards loosens the Germans’ hold on the Ukrainian railways and lessens the enemy’s ability to manoeuvre troops to meet the Russian rail thrusts. The Red Army on the other hand depends much less on rail communications. The Russians are accustomed to using other methods of transport.