FALL OF KARACHEV

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25306, 17 August 1943, Page 3

FALL OF KARACHEV

RUSSIANS REOCCUPY TOWN PROCRESS TOWARDS BRYANSK LONDON, Aug. 15. The Russians have captured Karachev, 45 miles north-west of Orel, and have made further progress on three offensive fronts. To-night’s Soviet communique states that the Russians on the Bryansk front, after stubborn street fighting, captured Karachev and are continuing the offensive in „the same direction. They have advanced three and a-half to six miles, and captured over 70 localities. On the Kharkov front the Russians beat off counter-attacks and forged ahead, capturing several inhabited localities. The Russians, advancing on the Demensk sector, have considerably improved their positions. Karachev, which is 25 miles from Bryansk, fell to the Soviet attackers after three days’ fierce fighting against fresh German reserves. Much booty and many prisoners were taken. The town was in flames after Soviet troops drove out the enemy. In an order of the day, Marshal Stalin has conferred the title of “ Karachev ” on the divisions which reoccupied the town. Threat to Bryansk Base

With the fall of Karachev the Russians have increased their threat to Bryansk, the great German base. The main highway between Bryansk and Smolensk has been cut by the Soviet forces, which have captured a large number of towns and villages northeast of Bryansk. The Soltanovka railway station, which was also recaptured to-day, is 30 miles south of Bryansk. A Russian communique says that on all fronts yesterday 70 German tanks were knocked out and 64 German aircraft shot down.

Writing earlier to-day before the fall of Karacnev was announced, a British war correspondent with the Red Army on the Bryansk front said: “The Germans have sharply intensified their resistance at Karachev, key to the railway and highway on the fringe of the great forests of Bryansk. With their backs to the blazing town, the Germans stand on wooded heights, the natural bastions guarding Karachev. After their. expulsion from Orel, the Germans tried + withdraw man-power and material in good order to Karachev, but the Russians, by swift flanking movements, forced them to give battle all the way, expanding much of their strength which they had hoped to conserve for the defence of Karachev. Now they have been forced to dip into the strength of the Bryansk garrison to maintain their resistance at Karachev. Thus, after the fall of Karachev, the battle might switch immediately to the eastern outskirts of Bryansk, just as the capture of Mtsensk was speedily followed by the storming of Orel.”

Huge Amount of Booty

A huge amount of booty has fallen into Soviet hands in the Kharkov area, where tank forces suddenly cut roads and railway lines, states a Moscow message. At one railway station the Red Army captured over 5,000,000 shells and 750,000 hand grenades, three of the Germans’ main food stores for the Kharkov sector, and thousands of barrels of benzine. In large-scale air battles over the city the Luftwaffe tried desperately to hold back the mounting superiority of the Soviet air forces commanded by General Polbin. Every Soviet air scout in the Kharkov area had to run the gauntlet of five or six attacks by German fighters. Soviet bombers and Stormoviks had to fight swarms of Focke-Wulfs.

Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says that the Russian summer offensive is now covering a battlefront of 350 miles and spreads from the southern to the central front.