TWO VICTORIES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25298, 7 August 1943, Page 5

TWO VICTORIES

RUSSIAN ARMIES CAPTURE OF BYELGOROD MOSCOW CELEBRATES (Rec. 9 p.m.) LONDON, Aug. 6. Marshal Stalin, hi an order of the day, stated: “ Yesterday troops on the Bryansk front, supported on the flanks by troops of the western and central fronts, as the result of fierce fighting, occupied Orel. In addition, to-day our troops on the Voronezh and Steppe fronts broke the enemy’s resistance and occupied Byelgorod. “A month ago, on July 5, the Germans launched a super-offen-sive from Orel and Byelgorod, aiming to wipe out the Soviet troops in the Kursk bulge and to occupy Kursk. Repelling all the enemy attacks, our troops went over to the counter-offensive, and just a month after the beginning of the German offensive occupied Orel and Byelgorod. Thus the German myth that Soviet troops were unable to carry out a summer offensive has been destroyed.” Marshal Stalin also announced that the Soviet divisions responsible for the victories would in future be known as the “Orel” and “Byelgorod” divisions. Marshal Stalin added: “To-day afc midnight the capital, Moscow, will salute the valiant troops which liberated Orel and Byelgorod by 12 artillery salvors fired from 120 guns. I offer my tljanks to all the troops who took part in this operation and eternal glory to all the men who fell in the fight.. Death to the German invaders! ” Orel a Mass of Flames - The Russians fought their way into Orel street by street, says the Moscow correspondent of the British United Press. The city was a mass of flames. Piles of wreckage and debris from blazing ■ buildings lay in the streets. The Germans began smashing up the city by blowing up factories and public

buildings a week ago. They left the city a wreck as terrible as Stalingrad, Rjev, and Voronezh. ' Commentators in London say the fall of Orel will affect the cohesion of the whole enemy front and expose Smolensk to a grave flanking danger. The military writer of the Evening Standard points out that the capture of Orel is the first great success for the Red Army’s offensive power. All previous Soviet successes followed Red Army counter-offensives which exploited the exhaustion of the Nazi attack. This deliberate offensive was mounted after months of preparation and carried out in spite of Field-marshal von Kluge’s spoiling attack. Orel is at once a grave blow to the Germans and an., even greater threat to them in the future. Greatest Victory of War The Daily Mail says Orel is certainly the greatest Russian victory of the war. The psychological effects will be terrific, because the German people have been taught to regard Orel as a symbol of their military strength. The strategical effects will be felt on every sector of the Russian front. The newspaper Pravda says that thousands of German dead and mountains of scrap iron litter the battlefield in' the wake of the Germans. The Moscow correspondent of the Daily Express says the Russians have 'launched a new drive threatening Bryansk, the Germans’ next “hedgehog’ city. Other Russian forces are completing the mopping up of Orel, where German rearguards are fighting stubbornly in the streets. The Germans are attempting to slow up the Russians west of Orel by keeping up a ceaseless artillery barrage. According to the Moscow military* spokesman the entire German defence system around the Orel bulge is crumbling swiftly, following the fall of Orel itself.

Move /to Trap Germans The Moscow correspondent of the Daily Telegraph says the fleeing German garrison aims to escape from Orel with as many men as possible to the temporary shelter of Bryansk. The Russians, sweeping from the north and south, are trying to cut them off and close the pincers at Karachev, 25 miles east of Bryansk. The fate of 150,000 to 200,000 Germans/ is being decided in the forests along the tracks west of . Orel. The Russians are certain to gain enormous booty and masses of artillery and tanks. Byelgorod is about 50 miles northeast of Kharkov, and is an important railway junction town on the line leading to the Donetz basin. It gives the Russians a good jumping-off ground from which to retake Kharkov and to advance into the Ukraipe. Much booty was captured around Orel, including in one sector 11,000 shells, 2,000,000 rounds of .small-arms ammunition, and over 100 machine guns.