Whole German Ukraine Front Tottering As Kherson Falls

Northern Advocate, 14 March 1944, Page 3

Whole German Ukraine Front Tottering As Kherson Falls

(Received 1 p.m.)

LONDON, March 13.

THE WHOLE GERMAN UKRAINE FRONT IS TOTTERING 1 UNDER BLOWS FROM FOUR RUSSIAN ARMIES WHICH ALREADY HAVE CUT MANY ESSENTIAL LINES OF RETREAT. THE RUSSIANS TODAY CAPTURED THE IMPORTANT PORT AND RAIL JUNCTION OF KHERSON.

Marshal Stalin, in an Order of the Day, addressed to General Malinovsky, says: “Forces of the third Ukrainian front, having forced the Dnieper, captured Berislavl and developed an offensive today and, after street fighting, stormed Kherson, a powerful German base of resistance.”

The German news agency’s military commentator said today: “In some places German troops, who had to give ground, reached the line from which they started out in 1941.” Moscow has not reported such a phenomenal break-through, which could be only in the Sarnykowel salient, where the Russians were last reported at Lutsk, about 50 miles from the new Russo-Polish border fixed by Ribbentrop and M. Molotov in 1939.

General Koniev’s army now is making an assault on the railway system linking the German southern army with Rumania, says Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. The Germans, though in mortal danger, cannot disengage as the Russians are forcing them to defend themselves against uninterrupted attacks all the way to the mouth of the Dnieper. The thrust to the Bug threatens to cut off 20 to 30 German divisions still fighting between Krivograd and Nikolayev.

Defence Disorganised

The Moscow correspondent of the British United Press says that advanced Russian cavalry, splashing through mud, are finding the entire enemy defence system disrupted. Small enemy units are not trying to make a stand. Russian columns steadily moving down the banks of the lower Dnieper and Bug arc preventing the Germans from using the Bug as a new defence line and preventing major bodies of Germans from escaping across the river westward. German confusion is increasing under the threat of another major encirclement. A correspondent, quoting latest reports from the front, says that the word panic is applicable to the present retreat in which the enemy is abandoning even light equipment and rifles in the rush to’Hhe rear. The defence of Nikolayev and other important Black Sea towns on which the Germans hinged their Ukraine positions. may now be impossible owing to disruption of the German front.

Withdraw to Dniester

The correspondent adds that to the north a great street battle continues in Tarnopol, where the Germans are making their one determined effort to stand and fight. They are hanging on to the western part of the town, supported by concentrations of guns and mortars on the hills outside the town. Although the town is ideal for defence, the Russians are steadily pushing the defenders out.

Reuter’s Moscow correspondent declares that the chances that the Germans will be able to hold the Bug line are very small. The Germans are facing the probability that they will be forced to withdraw the whole of the southern line to the Dniester in defence against the Russian threat. A vast encircling movement overshadows 250,000 men. The Russian army under command of General Koniev, is fanning out swiftly from newlycaptured Gaivoron. The third Ukrainian army, under Malinovsky, after forcing a crossing of the Ingul River, is now pressing on towards the lower reaches of the Bug River. These two forces are converging on the rail junction of Pervomaisk and a junction of these Russian forces will draw a tight net around the Germans. The threat from the Russian army under General Zhukov is equally grave for (lie Germans. The fall of Proskurov and Vinnitsa would turn the whole Dug line.

Disastrous Consequences

A correspondent describes yesterday's progress as one of the most dramatic and swift advances of Jhe Avhole winter campaign. Summing up results of 10 days’ fighting on the 400 miles front, he says the disastrous consequence for the Germans of the second Ukrainian army’s enormous victory at Uman is piling up. (1) The Germans lost irreplaceable armour and panzer groups, specially assigned to hold up the Russian southward advance from Kiev. (2) Rail communications to Rumania were gravely endangered. (3) Vinnitsa has been opened to flank attack. (4) There is a possibility that German forces will be split into two unconnected groups. The first group would include troops at Kirovgrad and Odessa and the other those fighting at the western end of the front who can still be withdrawn to Lwow.

Russian progress along the whole southern front is being increasingly aided by the use of German equipment. which is being impressed to service as soon as it is captured in order to speed up the advance. Swopping Horses

Two of three German army group commanders in Russia have been superseded, according to information reaching London. In the northern command, General Model has replaced von Kurchler, whose forces recently were flung out of their immensely strong positions round Leningrad. In the centre, von Kluge has been replaced by Field-Marshal Busch. Only von Manstein remains. It is thought possible that Hitler may consider it too dangerous to make a change in the south in the present critical circumstances. Confirmation has reached London of changes in the High Command of the German army groups in the northern and central sectors of the Russian front, says Reuter’s military correspondent in the north. Marshal Kuechler is replaced by ColonelGeneral Model, aged 52, a very experienced officer. In the centre, FieldMarshal von Kluge is replaced by Field-Marshal von Busch, aged 68, who saw considerable service in the last war and recently has been on Lake Ilmen front. None of the officers involved has been strongly associated with the Nazi Party. Way Opened to Naval Base The Germans are being thrown back across the Bug on a broad front in the centre of the Red Army’s drive towards the Carpathians and the Black Sea and are still abandoning great quantities of material, says the Moscow correspondent of the British United Press. The Red Army, as a result of the latest advances, including crossing Ingul River, has opened the way to the naval base of Nikolayev, while on the right wing of the 400-mile Ukrainian front the Russian grip is-closing on the remaining German strongholds on the Lwow-Odessa railway, which bar the way to the Dniester, A Russian supplementary communique states the Germans in Proskurov sector are suffering heavy losses of men and ma-