GREAT OFFENSIVE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25386, 18 November 1943, Page 5

GREAT OFFENSIVE

AIM OF DECISIVE VICTORY GLOOMY GERMAN SPOKESMAN LONDON. Nov. 16. The Exchange Telegraph’s Zurich correspondent quotes Swiss reports from Berlin as saying that to-day’s press conference was the gloomiest yet held. The German spokesman, explained that “the greatest of all Russian offensives ” had started in the Krivoi. Rog sector: He bitterly complained that the Russians, despite the miserable weather, continued their large-scale attacks, although it seemed incredible to employ tanks in such swampy country. The spokesman used the phrase "the Russians aim to force a decisive victory in 1943,” but declined to express an opinion whether this was possible. The Red Army appears to be steadily gaining the upper hand against German counter-attacks on. the southern flank of the Kiev bulge. The Russians

have been strengthened by reinforcements brought across the Dnieper, but the German losses are beginning to tell. ’

The German News Agency’s military commentator admits a withdrawal in the Dnieper bend. “ German detachments north-west of Zaporozhe withdrew at dusk yesterday to a shorter line after being attacked by Russian infantry divisions and a tank brigade, which achieved a break-through on a narrow sector,” he said. Captain Sertorius said on the Berlin radio to-night that very violent fighting continues in the great batt l/ ' for the Dnieper bend, and also ,in the Korosten-Jitomir-Fastov triangle, where the battles were fluctuating. He added that fresh Russian tank forces wgre thrown in at focal points in a rion-ston offensive.