CHERKASY ENCIRCLED

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

CHERKASY ENCIRCLED

RUSSIAN MANOEUVRE OTHER GAINS WITHIN BEND (Reed. 6.10 p.m.) * LONDON, Dec. 6 The Red Army has encircled Cherkasy, inside the Dnieper bend, 70 miles north-west of Kremenchug, as a result of an adroit manoeuvre west and southwest of the city, says a Moscow message. Attempts*by the garrison to break out and by a relief force to break in have been repulsed with heavy losses. The Russians are exploiting their favourable position in this sector. There is no indication of the size of the German garrison, but, judging from the tank losses the enemy suffered in counter-attacks in the past few days, the beleaguered force must be considerable. The liquidation of the Cherkasy garrison would enable the Russians to join up with the forces which swung to the north from Kremenchug. The Red Army has also half-encircled Alexandria, a railway town about 25 miles from Snamenka. The Germans are holding on hard to Snamenka, but the whole district to the north on the left bank of the river Ingul is now in Soviet hands. ..The Russians have gained more ground inside the loop of the Dnieper west and south-west of Kremenchug. A Soviet communique says that a German assault group about 1000 strong landed a few days ago on the left side of the Dnieper estuary. Thev seized a strategic point and succeeded in holding it. until yesterday morning, when the Russians counter-attacked in strength and killed or captured the entire enemy force. SUPPLIES FROM INDIA ANCIENT CARAVAN ROUTE LONDON, Dec. 5 One thousand lorries, with military supplies from India, are rolling into Russia along an ancient caravan way, which has been converted in eight months into a 600-mile highway, bringing India's vast resources to within a week's road journey of the Russian frontiers, says the British official wireless. The construction of this route through Eastern Persia was a rush job, necessitated by the German advance in the Caucasus. It was done by a pick and shovel army of 30,000 men, women and children supervised by a staff which represented 15 different nationalities. NAZI OFFICER HANGED RUSSIAN RETRIBUTION (Reed. 5.35 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 5 The Russians have hanged a German officer from the same tree on which he had executed a Russian woman. The German was tried by a field courtmartial of the Red Army in a village west of Kremenchug, in the Dnieper bend. Reporting this, the Red Star says: "The first German war criminal ha«; been hanged." The newspaper added that the German had ordered the woman to be executed for having killed poultry without sanction from the German agricultural authorities. The Russians occupied the village soon after and civilians, who had caught the German officer before lie could escape, handed him over to the Red Army.