Air Bombardment Paving Way For Crossing Dnieper

Northern Advocate, 1 October 1943, Page 3

Air Bombardment Paving Way For Crossing Dnieper

(Rec. 1.30 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 30. The Red Army’s intensified investment of Kiev is at pi-esent taking the form of a terrific air bombardment of the German batteries which von Mannstein has placed on a rim of cliffs on the west bank of the Dnieper. The Russians, who have captured the middle Dnieper island of Trukhanov, 450 yards from the city, opposite the central part of Kiev, are the keenest spectators of dog-fights over German battei’ies. They know that the Red Air Force is smashing a way for them into the heart of the enemy’s west bank position, says the Moscow correspondent of the British United Press. Scores of squadrons of Stormovik and fighter-bombers are pounding the batteries, also machine-gunning each battered German unit as it struggles across the Dnieper to the west bank north and south of Kiev. Smaller River Forded

Tonight’s Soviet communique states that the Russians, in the Mohilev direction, have continued to develop their successful offensive, and have advanced 71 miles, and after fording the River Soj, fought their way into the town and l-ailway junction of Kricev, which has been captured. The Russians have also occupied over 170 inhabited places.

In the Gomel direction, the Russians have advanced in some sectors six to seven miles, and occupied over 60 places.

The Russians, in the Vitebsk direction, overcoming enemy resistance, have continued the offensive and captured over 30 inhabited localities. Disorderly Retreat

The Russians are attempting to force decisive breaches in the whole German defence line in the middle of the Dnieper area, states the German news agency.

Vichy l’aaio says that six Russian divisions, supported by tanks, are attacking in the region between Melitopol and Zaporozhe. A large concentration of troops and materials has been observed west of Smolensk where an increase of Russian pressure may be expected. Moscow reports say that great slaughter has been effected among the Germans who made a last stand at Kremenchug. Several thousand were drowned trying to retreat across the river as Russian bombers and artillery rained death on boats, rafts and pontoons overcrowded with the exhausted and defeated enemy. “Izvestia” says that the Germans reti’eated in disorder from Kremenchug. Many were crushed to death under Russian tanks. Moscow radio says that Kremenchug was won after a bloody threeday battle. Our tanks left hundreds of German corpses in the streets. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says that the Russians have crossed the Soj north of Gomel and are directly threatening the town. The Germans are bringing up troops from other sectors in an attempt to hold the town on the southern end of which the White Russia line is anchored. Fiex-ce air battles are going on over Kiev as the Germans try to intercept Russian planes hammering German communications leading into the city, preparing the way for further development of Russian opei-ations for the capture of the town. A number of Messerschmitts were snot down in Kiev suburbs.

Stalingrad Veterans Take Isle

While the aerial softening up of Kiev’s outer defences is going on, veteran troops of Stalingrad, under General Rokossovsky, wiped out the last German rearguard on the east bank of the Dnieper, opposite Kiev. It was detachments of Stalingrad veterans avhich jumped across to Trukhanov Island. To Open Gateway To Poland . Powerful Russian forces west and north-west of Smolensk are massing over a 200-mile front for a concerted blow to smash the whole German central front from its hinges and open the gateway to Poland and the Baltic Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says that the momentum of the Russian advance has brought Gomel and Vitibsk, which are the anchors of the whole White Russian line, into imminent danger. The fall of Gomel, which is apparently inevitable, would cut away the hinge of the central and southern fronts and send them rolling back on either side of the dreaded Pripet Marshes. Tire Germans’ elab> orate defences of Gomel are crumbling before the Red Army which has crossed the Soj River north and south of the town. Elsewhere on the Wihitet Russian front, the Russians are only 25 miles south-east of Mohilev and less than 40 miles south-east of Vitebsk. The Russians are closing in around Orsha at a rate of 10 miles daily. Krichev, which the Russians captured today, is a junction of two rail-ways—Unecha-Orcha line and Mohi-lev-Roslovl line situated on the west bank of the Soj River, 60 miles south' east of Mohilev. The Stockholm correspondent of the British United Press says that reports from Berlin in the past few days have emphasised the Germans’ stiffening resistance and growing belief in Berlin that the retreat is ending. A Dead Land A supplementary Moscow communique says that 6000 Germans have been killed fighting for Darnitsa, which is seven or eight miles east of Kiev, and adds that Soviet troops have now reached the Dnieper immediately fronting Kiev. The Germans are falling back from the rich farmlands of the Ukraine,,- leaving behind a dead land in which even birds are nowhere left alive, says Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. The Red Army is pushing through wild rose-bushes on the Dnieper bank and marching through orchards of blackened apple trees, where even little boxes built for starlings to nest have been systematically burnt. Acres of ryefields have been flattened, not by the trampling feet of retreating armies but by bodies of Ukrainian peasants forced at machine-gun point to roll on their crops and destroy them when German efforts to fire the crops failed. The Germans are apparently determined to leave a completely lifeless zone between their rearguards and the angry Red Army. Peasants Uprooted Masses of Ukrainian peasants, carried off at the last moment by the retreating army, were forced to make long treks to the Dnieper, where they were herded into barges with their own cattle and dragged across the river by ropes. Tens of thousands of Russians on the west bank of the Dnieper were forced to build new enemy fortifications. A Russian correspondent quoted by Reuter says that the west bank has been cut into a series of vertical terraces peppered with pill-boxes and firing-points, while the lower bank has been saturated with mines. The Russian correspondent concludes: “It is impossible to lay mines all along the Dnieper and in the autumn the water is noisy and the nights dark. No wonder the Germans on the west bank are nervous.” N.Z. Airmen Win Promotion (Special) LONDON, Sept. 30. D. J. Scott, D. 5.0., D.F.C. and Bar, of Greymouth, has been promoted wingcommander and will lead a Typhoon wing including a New Zealand squadron. His successor as the squadron’s commanding officer is I. D. Waddy, of Blenheim, whe has been promoted squadron-leader. Flight-Lieutenant A. E. Umbers, D.F.C.. (Dunedin) is now resting after operations. New flight commanders are F. Murphy (Wellington) and A. S. Smith (Auckland), both promoted flight-lieutenants. Colin Gray, D. 5.0., D.F.C. and Bar (Gisborne) has been promoted group* captain. . •• ;y.:-, ■ - ' .••■■■'■ ' A; . :■' X -'r ’ . ' - :