RAPID ADVANCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25454, 8 February 1944, Page 3

RAPID ADVANCE

DRIVE INTO POLAND VITAL RAILWAYS THREATENED LONDON, Feb. 6. Russian cavalry is playing a big part in the operations in Poland. The Germans are suffering heavy casualties. The Moscow correspondent of the British United Press says that General Vatutin’s lightning drive westward has brought him to 50 miles from the important railway station of Kovel. General Vatutin is pressing towards Kovel along the railways from Sarny and Rovno, and also south-west from Rovno towards Lwow, thereby increasing the Russian threat against the Germans’ life line in South Russia. The newspaper Red Star says that General Vatutin’s break-through, which resulted in the capture of Rovno and Lutsk, was along a 100-mile front through well-prepared German positions. A British Official Wireless message says that the Russian drive south of the Pripet Marshes brings new perspectives into view. General Vatutin’s forward troops are already nearly 250 miles west of Kiev, and now Lwow and Brest-Litovsk lie before them, 80 miles to the south-west and 100 miles to the north-west' respectively. Warsaw is 200 miles ahead, and the East Prussian frontier is about the same distance to the north-west Along the southern flank of their offensive from Lutsk to Ilna the Russians hold a'2oo- - front at a distance varying from 30 to 60 miles from the vital Crocow-Lwow-Odessa railway. In the north Soviet forces advancing southwards from Narva along the eastern shores of Lake Chudskoye, or Peipus, are 200 miles north-east of Riga. The Luga pocket is quickly crumbling, but it is doubtful whether the Germans east of Luga will succeed in escaping through the town before the Russians close on it from the north and south. ' To the north the Russians are about 12 miles from Luga, and they have been edging around the south.