VORONEZH VICTORY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25134, 27 January 1943, Page 3

VORONEZH VICTORY

IMPORTANT SOVIET GAINS (Rec. 2 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 26. “The latest Russian successes on the Voronezh front endanger the vital line from Kupyansk junction to Rostov,” says the Moscow correspondent of the British United Press. “The Russians have captured the district centre of Lozoalexandrovka, lying midway between Valuiki and Starobyelsk. and a little more than 20 miles from Kupyansk, which is the last big railway junction town before Kharkov i» reached." The Moscow correspondent of Reuters says that considerable strategical significance attaches to the Russian mastery over the Voronezh area and the east bank of the Don. Voronezh was the keypoint through which the Germans hoped last summer to take Moscow from the distant rear. The heroic garrison of the town has now forced the Germans to turn south. With the vital base of Voronezh entirely cleared of the enemy, the Soviet Command is free to develop a full-scale offensive towards Kursk. The Moscow newspaper Pravda disclosed that the Germans were driven from Voronezh after savage street battles in heavy snowstorms. Although the Germans had just realised that their line of retreat was cut off, they fought on fiercely, and every street had to be taken by a separate outflanking manoeuvre. A heavy dark red, sky now hangs over Voronezh. The streets and squares are empty, and heaps of German bodies are piled on the ground.