DRIVE TO ODESSA

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24761, 8 December 1943, Page 3

DRIVE TO ODESSA

BLACK SEA- SECTOR CLOSING OF RIVER MOUTH LONDON. Dec. (i The Moscow correspondent of the Associated Press says that further successes have brought the Russian southern forces within 40 miles of Odessa, on the Black Sea. The Red Army has taken a firm hold on the Kinburn Peninsula, closing the mouth of the Dnieper, and thereby preventing the Germans from using the ports of Kherson and Nikolaev. The Germans are trying their utmost to take advantage of the unfavourable weather of winter to halt the Soviet thrusts. The Russians, however, a,re pressing forward over slough-like roads. The British United Press Moscow correspondent points out that the persistence of the autumn rains is negativing the Red Army's cold weather equipment and tactics, enabling the Germans to make efforts to recapture the initiative and restore their Dnieper winter line before the Russians are able again to bring full pressure to bear. The Germans in White Russia and the Southern Ukraine are regrouping and pouring in reinforcements, he adds. The enemy's abortive attempt to re-establish his positions on the Dnieper delta are apparently part of this effort to recapture the initiative. The weather in White Russia and Southern Ukraine is still bogging down armour and keeping the Red Air Force on'the ground, and unless the weather takes an unexpected turn no spectacular progress in the near future can be expected from the Red Army. The Berlin radio's commentator, Captain Sertprius, said Allied propaganda was attempting to explain the Russians' present comparative inactivity by hinting that a specially-equipped winter army was ready to relieve the front-line troops. He added that a sober observer would neither exaggerate nor belittle this possibility.