TANKS MASSED

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24748, 23 November 1943, Page 3

TANKS MASSED

JITOMIR SECTOR

GERMANS' EFFORT

ENEMY'S GRAND CLAIMS

RUSSIANS DRIVEN BACK

(Reed. 6.15 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 22 The heaviest fighting on the .Kiev bulge is at the southern flank of the Russian salient. A great battle of massed tanks and armour is going on 25 to 30 miles east of .Titomir. On one sector alone the Germans launched three big tank attacks, but after they had broken down in the face of Russian artillery fire the enemy threw in strong infantry forces without success. Moscow messages say that the Germans have never before concentrated such forces of tanks, infantry and aircraft for a counter-attack as they are doing on this sector. After the recapture of Jitomir the enemy is concentrating on a blow from the powerful armoured fist of several panzer divisions against Korostyschev. That the, majority of the German tanks are knocked out every day along the entire front is claimed by Russian gunners on this narrow sector.

Extent ol German Losses

Some idea of the German losses in the Korostyschev area is given in a Soviet communique. In one place alone the Germans threw in two infantry regiments and 60 tanks. Soviet troops killed 800 men and knocked out 32 tanks. In general, along the whole Russian front German losses continue to bo enormous.

The German news agency's commentator von Hammer says that the Russians have been forced back 40 miles in 48 hours. He adds: "German spearheads are within 40 miles of Kiev."

The Paris radio says that FieldMarshal von Mannstein's counteroffensive now extends over a 100-mile front from Jitomir to the Dnieper. Progress North of Korosten Reuter's correspondent in Moscow says that Russian troops, north of Korosten beyond the range of the German counter-attack, continue to swing north-west, round the Pripet Marshes, deeper into White Russia.- One Russian column, driving north from Rietchitsa, has reached the banks of the Beresina River.

On the southern end of the Whito Russian front Red Army troops have struck deeper into the rear of the German bastion of Gomel and are now more than 30 miles behind the town. This advance was made by the troops who bv-passed Gomel to the south.

• The life-line to the Germans grouped in Gomel has been reduced to the corridor to the north-west since the extension of the Russian bridgehead over, the Dnieper River south and north of the town. Russian units north of Gomel are reported to be already in control of the_ highway to Mogilev and to be attacking strongpoints covering the railway to the Jlobin area. There is no indication yet that the Germans are making an attempt to withdraw substantial forces from the Gomel area, in spite of the growing threat of encirclement. HELP FROM GUERILLAS ATTACKS ON GERMAN REARLONDON, Nov. •>_> As the Red Army drives into the forests and marshes of White Russia it is getting more and more help from guerillas. They come out of their hiding places to make lightning attacks on the German rear and then the Red Army takes advantage of the confusion caused and launches a frontal attack. It was tactics like these that drove the Germans from advance points in the Rietchitsa region.

UPROOTED HUMANITY PROBLEM FOR ALLIES 30,000.000 TRANSPLANTED (Reed. 6.40 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. >2 More than 30,000,000 people have been transplanted or torn from their homes since the outbreak of war, says Mr. Eugene M. Kulischer in a book written for the Internationa] Labour Office. This huge total, he adds, does not include all the people in Europe who are now living away from their pre-war homes. Neither does it include the millions in the enemy armed forces who are stationed abroad, prisoners of war, or the millions of Italian and German refugees who during last year fled or were evacuated from heavily bombed cities. The Jews uprooted from their homes mav total more than 4.000.000.

Foreign people employed in Germany, according to the writer's latest knowledge, include 1,300,000 Poles, 800.000 French civilians, 1.100.000 French prissoners of war, 1.500,000 Russian civilians, 500.000 Russian prisoners of war, and 350,000 Italian civilians. Before their repatriation after the war the uprooted people will have to be fed, clothed and medically treated. The cessation of the German war machine will deprive millions of pris- - oners of war and imported workers of employment. It is a problem the solution of which is beyond the powers of any single country. ATHENS JEWS ESCAPE ASSISTED BY GREEKS LONDON, Nov. 01 Greek patriots hid nearly 12,000 Jews living in Athens to prevent the Germans deporting them to Poland. This was revealed by Jewish refugees who arrived at Istanbul after having been smuggled out of Greece. On October 25 the German Military Governor of Athens ordered the Chief Rabbi to prepare a complete list, with addresses, of 12,000 Jews in the capital. He indicated that this was a preliminary step toward deportation of the entire Jewish population to Poland. While preparing the list the Chief Rabbi revealed the German order to Greek friends, who got into contact with the head of the underground patriot organisation. The night before the list was ready a small party of Greeks broke into the rabbi's home, burned the list and took the rabbi to to a mountain village for safety. On October 31 the German governor published an order_ instructing all Jews to report bv November 14. By that date only 268 of the 12,000 had reported; the rest had been hidden in the homes of Greek Christians, in spite of the German threat of the death penalty for harbouring Jews. One Jew who reached Istanbul told the Dailv Express correspondent that after he had been hidden for two days he was taken at night_ to a remote village. Here he was hidden with lb other Jews, and next night they were all taken to an island controlled by the patriots and shipped in small coastal boats to Turkey. Other Jews are being smuggled out of Greece in the same way. NAZI PLANES DESTROYED LONDON. Nov. -it Photographs show that 21 Junkers SS long-range bombers were among the oo planes destroved or damaged in a recent Allied air raid on the airfield ot Eleusis, in Greece.