BROAD RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25364, 23 October 1943, Page 5

BROAD RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE

THREAT TO KRIVOI ROG FIERCE GERMAN RESISTANCE (United Press Association) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Rec. 11.30 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 22. Soviet forces are driving on in their broacl offensive across the Dnieper bend, and the Germans, fighting hard to stave off the isolation of their large armies, have whipped up resistance in the last 24 hours. The present battles are being contested with a ferocity only equalled at the height of the battle for Stalingrad, and more and more enemy troops are being thrown into the struggle. The weather is still holding, and the Red Army is going all out to attain its objectives before the rains turn the battlefront into a quagmire. One of these objectives is Krivoi Rog. The German armies are in great peril. So far they have not been able to mount a fullscale counter-offensive but only local counter-attacks, which have not prevented the Russians from deepening and broadening their breakthrough. One Soviet force is little more than 20 miles from Krivoi Rog, and if this junction falls the whole German rail system in the. Dnieper bend will be. thrown into confusion, rapidly increasing the prospects of disaster to the enemy. The struggle for Melitopol is taking its desperate course. The German defences appear to be weakening, and they now hold only the northern part of the city. The British United Press says that in Melitopol, where street fighting has been going on for nine days, a great tank battle is raging around the cathedral. The Germans are constantly counter-attacking in a last desperate effort to hold the city. They are, however, slowly being pressed back in this new Stalingrad. There is a surprising absence of German infantry in Melitopol. Both here and on the nearby steppes the Germans are relying mainly on armour to hold off the Russians. Big battles are raging only a few miles from Kiev, and the enemy defences are being steadily ground down. South-west of Gomel the Russians have extended their grip on the west bank of the Dnieper. Immense air battles are going on over the whole 200-mile stretch on the west bank of the Dnieper, south-east of Kiev. The Germans are sending over 100 bombers at a time and are making tremendous efforts to break through the Russian fighter screens to reach the Dnieper crossings, where vast numbers of men continue to pour to the- west bank.