STEADY DRIVE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24760, 7 December 1943, Page 3

STEADY DRIVE

SOVIET PUSHES ON DIFFICULT TERRAIN FLOUNDERING IN MTJD WHITE RUSSIAN WINTER (Reed. 6.10 p.m.) LONDON, Deo. 6 The Russians are steadily storming their way forward through forests and swampr, to the German defence line in White Russia, says the Moscow correspondent of the News Chronicle. They have made more headway with their new drive northwest in the direction of Mogilev. Soviet spearheads have pushed closer to the key towns of Rogachev and Jlobin, both of which stand on the western bank of the upper Dnieper. Some of General Rokossovsky's men have reached the river just below Jlobin, and German rearguards are making desperate efforts to hold a 15-mile-wide bridgehead on the eastern bank while the main enemy forces are trying to escape to the other side. Miracles of Transport Building In the face of the worst snowstorms of the year, Soviet engineers on this front are performing miracles with log roads and bridges to enable the army to maintain its encirclement threat from north and south. Renter's Moscow correspondent says the Red Army, with lorries hub deep and vehicles often reduced to floundering helplessness, is fighting mud almost as much as the Germans. The Russians, nevertheless, are implacably closing in against the enemy's shrinking bridgehead on the east bank of the Dnieper at Jlobin. Fighting is mounting in intensity as the Russians approach the riverbank. Von Kluge is hitting back from the Dnieper with determined counterattacks in which giant "Ferdinands'' are being sent squelching forward through the mud. So far, however, he has failed to check the Russians, who, under difficult conditions, are resorting to night attacks, frequently appearing in the enemy's rear and cutting him off. Drive Against Mogilev The British United Press reports that General Rokossovsky's right wing, keeping up its advance from Propoisk, has branched off against Mogilev, the hub of the White Russian railway system. Advanced forces are operating less than 20 miles from the town. There is still no mention by Moscow of the strong Russian attacks reported bv the eneinv along the Smolensk-Orsha road. According to the Vichy radio, however, 600,000 Russians were thrown against the German lines in the area between Orsha and Vitebsk. Powerful thrusts were launched at many points in this sector, but so far the Germans have held their positions.