SIGNS OF COLLAPSE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25429, 10 January 1944, Page 3

SIGNS OF COLLAPSE

DNIEPER BEND FRONT ENEMY IN DIRE STRAITS (Rec. 0.20 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 9. The German front from the upper Bug River to the eastern Dnieper bend is collapsing like a house of cards. Moscow correspondents say that thousands of German troops face a catastrophe of an unprecedented scale. The elimination of Kirovograd has opened up the sluice gates, and the Red Army is streaming through the gap, making for the important rail centre of Novo Ukroinka, and the Bug River escape gap still remaining to the Germans at Krivoi Rog and Nikopol is narrowing every hour. The German News Agency’s commentator, General von Hammer, says that the German lines on the Dnieper bend have been withdrawn to face the Russian offensive. Battles of unparalleled ferocity are going on. The fall of Kirovograd, the kingpin of General von Mannstein’s Dnieper bend line, 40 miles south-east of Symela, marks the beginning of the end of the Dnieper bend, says Reuter’s military correspondent. The Red Army’s wide advance is carrying the Russians well forward against the flank of the German forces remaining in the Krivoi Rog and Nikopol sectors. It Is clear that a complete withdrawal cannot be long delayed if the Germans there are to avoid encirclement. Observers in Moscow believe that the Red Army is strong enough to maintain the vigour of the present campaign and begin new ones when the time is opportune.