GERMANS EXHAUSTED?

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 5 February 1944, Page 5

GERMANS EXHAUSTED?

EFFORTS TO STEM RUSSIAN ADVANCE <Rec. 10.10 a.m.) Rueby, Feb 4. Big developments on the Russian from suggest the Germans are exhausted by their efforts to stem the Russian advance towards Vinnitsa and Uman and have used up divisions which could ill be spared. If as the Germans state Rovno and Lutsk have been captured, the Russians will soon be in a position to advance on both Brest-Litovsk and Lvov. In any caso many extra Russian divisions will shortly be released for service elsewhere by the encirclement on the Dnieper, south-east of Kiev, from which the Germans seem unlikely to escape Attention is particularly directed on the Nikopol-Krivoi Rog salient. In the north the expected pause on the Narva line has occurred while German forces which remained between the rivers Luga and Volkhov struggle to escape towards the south-west from the jaws closing on them. Earlier reports that the Russians had

advanced far into Estonia are incorrect. Last night their line ran from the Gulf of Finland a few miles east of Narva about 20 miles south of Narva in the direction of the north-east corner of Lake Peipus, then turning sharply a little north of east, ran more or less direct to the apex of the German salient some 50 miles east of Luga. It tfien bent west to about 15 miles south-east of Luga where it turned back again to Lake Ilmen just north of Shinsk. THOUSANDS OF ENEMY KILLED A Russian supplementary communique states that enemy divisions encircled in the Kanev pocket ai*e desperately trying to break out but are meeting with determined resistance and suffering enormous losses. One of our units in three days’ fighting wiped out 2000 Germans, destroyed 40 tanks and captured 18. and also a great quantity of other booty. The enemy with fresh reserves is resisting stubbornly west of Novgorod, where the Russians yesterday repelled no fewer than 20 counterattacks. West of Sokoliniki the enemy in the last three days’ fighting lost more than 5000 in killed alone.