RUSSIANS’ SWIFT THRUSTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25300, 10 August 1943, Page 3

RUSSIANS’ SWIFT THRUSTS

IMPORTANT RAILWAYS CUT (Rec. 9.15 p.m.) LONDON, Aug. 8. The Germans now have an escape gap of only about 50 miles south of Kharkov. All three railway lines leading north and north-west from Kharkov have been cut by the Russians. Two other main lines are still open, but most of the great railway system of which Kharkov is the centre is now in Russian hands. Reuter', points out that the capture of Bogodukov cut the KharkovSumy railway. The Russians to-day captured Bolshik, 16 miles northwest of Kharkov. The Russians, after by-passing Kharkov from the north and cutting two railways north-west of the city, struck to the west to Bolshaya and Pisaevka, 18 miles from Kharkov, thereby cutting the third railway, which runs north-west and links Kharkov with the Dnieper River. This wide pincers ’movement, which is .intended to encircle Kharkov by cutting all railways leading to the west and northwest, is developing simultaneously with frontal thrusts to the south from Zorochev. The Stockholm correspondent of The Times says the Russians are also moving from the Chuguyev bridgehead. If they succeed in extending this arm south of Kharkov, the German base there will have to be evacuated to a ; void complete envelopment. On the central front Soviet troops now hold about 20 miles of the railway running west from Orel through Karachev to Bryansk, and have now reached a point only 50 miles south-east of Bryansk. The Soviet Army newspaper, Red Star, issued a special call to guerrillas in White Russia to prepare for new battles. “The echo of the guns roaring beyond Orel and Byelgorod is heard in Kiev and on the Dnieper and Dvina. To the 3,000,000 White Russians under the German heel we are coming soon.” The paper adds that the Germans left Byelgorod a man-made wilderness. The Germans posted evacuation notices in Byelgorod ordering the population to leave on July 29. With bloodhounds the Germans tracked down inhabitants hiding in cellars and the woods and forced them to trek to Kharkov.