ROUT OF ENEMY

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 24793, 17 January 1944, Page 3

ROUT OF ENEMY

SUPPLY DISOBGANISET) RETREAT ACROSS MARSHES (Reed. 9.15 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 16 The capture of Mozir appears to have disorganised the German supply system on the whole central sector, says the British official wireless. The German rout on a 200mile stretch across the Pripet marshes from the River Beresina to Rovno shows no sign of ending. The Russian advance continues from Kalinovichi to the north-west, from Mozir to the west, from Sarny in all directions, and on a broad front toward'Rovno. German sources hold out no hope of an early checking of the Russian advance on the White Russian front. The Berlin radio stated that the Soviet offensive had by no means exhausted itself and probably would continue on a no less massive scale. Appeal to German Troops

The commentator von Hammer said the Germans were greatly outnumbered in the fighting around the Pripet marshes. He admitted that the Russians had broken through. Printed copies of an appeal from the German High Command to its troops were found in the pockets of German dead and oil prisoners in the Mozir area, says Reuter's Moscow correspondent. The appeal read: "The enemy must be halted far away from the Fatherland. He must be halted in' spite of all the break-throughs he has made. He must be halted by a living wall defending the German Reich." By the capture of Mozir and Kalinovichi the Red Army has cleared the way for a new advance across the Pripet marshes to Pinsk and Brest Litovsk, says the British United Press correspondent. Both the captured places' dominate the railway to Pinsk. These last two German strongholds fell after Genera] Rokossovsky's men had blasted a way for Russian tanks through a miniature Siegfried Line. Fleeing Forces Threatened The German retreat from Mozir across some of the worst country in the world is immediately threatened by General Vatutin's right wing in the Sarny salient, which has advanced north toward the western railway across the Pripet marshes, where lies the Germans' only way of eseape. Genera! Rokossovsky's troops, before the fall of Mozir, by-passed these Germans and were pressing westward. Now tbe.v and also General Vatutin's men are in a position to converge against the next important junction of Luniniec, on the Rovno-Vilna railway, and eventually to threaten the Orsha-Minsk-Warsaw line, the last main railway serving the Germans in White Russia. The battle for Mozir and Kalinovichi has shown that the Russian generals are fighting with masterly tactics and skill which they have rarely surpassed in the present war, says the Times correspondent in Moscow. The offensive bears the impress of General Rokossovsky's scrupulous, paintsaking hand. Mozir is an industrially unimportant town with a population of 11.000, but it was the bastion protecting the eastern entrance to the Pripet marshes. PEACE OFFER TO RUSSIA BRITISH OFFICERS' COPY LONDON, Jan. 15 Three British officers were dropped by parachute in Rumania on Christmas Eve with a photographic copy of a Gorman peace offer to Russia, says a Stockholm message. Under the proposal the Germans offered Russia the provinces of Bessarabia and' Bukovina, adjoining Eastern Rumania. The three officers said they had been sent on a special mission and nsked to be received by the Prime Minister, Antoneseu. This was done, and all the officers of the Rumanian General Staff were present. The report adds: "Pro-1 ducing a photographic copy of the German peace proposals, the officers informed the Rumanians that Germany intended to sell them out to Russia " The three offieoes were interned. Commenting on the report the Budapest correspondent of the Svenska Dngbladet says the Rumanians do not deny the story, but state that the incident is "part of the nerve war. and a British propaganda trick." The Berlin radio quoted the German Foreign Office as saying that British officers and high secret service agents landed in Rumania to meet Russian authorities. The Foreign Office described an earlier "peace move" report as ridiculous and added that the British officers and agents wanted to see the Rumanian authorities, but the only people they saw were the Rumanian police.