RUSSIAN THRUSTS

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

RUSSIAN THRUSTS

MELITOPOL DEFENCES BROKEN HEAVY ENEMY LOSSES LONDON. Oct. 21. Despatches from Berlin to-night report that the Red Army has breached the German defences at Melitopol in Eowerful new attacks, says the Stockolm correspondent of Reuter’s agency. He quotes the Berlin representative of the Scandinavian Telegraph Bureau as saying that the situation at Melitopol is becoming increasingly critical. The Russian thrusts time and again have broken into the German defence system.

The Germans are fighting grimly to retain their hold on Melitopol, but are showing, signs of weakening, says Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. Heavy fighting is still going on inside the city, which is not smashed up as badly as Stalingrad. The Germans are finding themselves in an increasingly difficult position. The Moscow radio said that the capture of two heights has improved the Russian positions at Melitopol. They have taken more blocks of houses and repelled 17 counter-attacks. The enemy is suffering enormous losses irf’relentless street battles. The Russian newspaper Red Star says that the Germans have been forced to bring up from the rear many special battalions, some of which are being thrown into action straight from the march.

Pravda says that the fighting on the Dnieper bend south-east of Kremenchug is like Stalingrad. One village changed hands six times. The Germans, to regain it, counter-attacked 28 times. The ground is littered with tanks and guns. The Russian wedge is eating deeper and deeper into the Western Ukraine.

The German High Command is expecting a large-scale Russian offensive between Legingrad and Lake Ladoga, where important concentrations of men and tanks have been observed. During Tuesday night the Soviet air force bombed German military trains and stores at the railway junctions of Fastov, Znamenka, and Dzhankoy, and the railway station at Nikopol, says a Moscow message. No fewer than five trains were wrecked. Large fires which broke out were followed Oy violent explosions. One Soviet plane failed to return.

A supplementary message says a Soviet partisan group operating in a certain area of the Volynya region in two days derailed three German military trains, two engines, 16 trucks laden with tanks and lorries, and 18 wagons carrying various loads. Another partisan group operating in the same region during the week blew up six lorries and one light car. Partisans killed four German officers and 33 soldiers.

In the Barents Sea three enemy selfpropelled barges and an escorting cutter were sunk.

In air combats seven German planes were shot down.

In the Black Sea one enemy transport of 5000 tons and two freighters were sunk.