FURTHER CAPTURES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 24 August 1944, Page 2

FURTHER CAPTURES

IMPORTANT GERMAN STRONGHOLDS (Rcc. 11.55 a.m.) London, Aug. 23. Marshal Stalin in an order of the day addressed to General Malinovsky, states that as a result of an impetuous blow tanks and troops of the Second Ukrainian Front today captured Vaslui, an important centre of communication and a strong defence base between the rivers Sereth and Pruth. In a second order of the day. this time addressed to General Tolbukhin, Marshal Stalin says troops of the Third Ukrainian Front, continuing the offensive, to-day carried by assault the towns of Akkerman and Bender, two important strongholds in the German defences in the Lower Dniester.

Thirty-eight miles south of Jassy. Vaslui stands on the main railway 85 miles north of Galati. The British United Press points out that the railway from Kishinev joints the Galati railway only eight miles south of Vaslui, so Germans who were garrisoning Kishinev are about to lose the only escape railway. Vaslui is 122 miles from Buzau. the nearest Rumanian oilfield. German and Rumanian lines in both sectors where the Russian armies are driving on Galati gap are showing further signs of crumbling, states the Exchange Telegraph Agency’s Moscow correspondent. There are thousands of German dead everywhere, also vast quantities of abandoned enemy war material. Russian tanks, infantry and guns are moving on steadily south-west under the protection of a great aerial umbrella. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says the Third Ukrainian Army has outflanked the Black Sea port of Akkerman. The German garrison is reported to have a corridor 25 miles wide through which it could escape. The Russian drive is also threatening other Black Sea ports of Sulina and Constanta, which the Red Air Force has been bombing STORMING TOWARDS GALATI GAP Reuter adds that the Red Army is storming towards the Galati gap in a great two-way offensive which has brought Kishinev into the centre of a huge, swiftly tightening sack, and has carried the fighting within less than 50 miles of the Danube delta. The German news agency commentator. von Hammer, says that Russians west of Bialvstok, between the Bug and Narew rivers, launched a grand scale offensive after an artillery barrage for hours, and under waves of battle planes. The battles lasted all day before the Germans withdrew their lines two miles. The Russians powerful offensive is threatening to overrun and cut off strong German units. Referring to Rumania von Hammer said the Russians’ aim was to drive deep southward while preventing the Rumanians and from establishing a new switch position against I the Russian drive in the Urut.h sector, and grim battles are in progress in the eastern approaches to the Carpathian mountains. ELEVEN SHIPS SUNK London, Aug. 23. Moscow radio says the Red Air Force in a mass raid on Constanta directly hit and sank two transports and nine other vessels, and damaged an auxiliary cruiser and four submarines.