SWEEPING ON

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25457, 11 February 1944, Page 3

SWEEPING ON

FORCES NEARING KRIVOI ROG LUGA ALSO THREATENED (Rec. 11.30 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 10. Two more German bases in Russia are threatened by Red Army forces. Krivoi Rog, the last big industrial centre in the Dnieper bend area still in German hands, is half encircled by rapidlyadvancing troops. One Russian force, advancing from Nikopol, was last reported to be 10 miles from Krivoi Rog, while another force, sweeping down from the north, is now 12 miles to the north-west of the city. Luga, which is the key to the German positions in the north between Lake Ilmen and Lake Peipus, is the other threatened base. Further advances in this area are reported, and the latest despatches from Moscow stale that the Russians have consolidated their positions 16 miles from Luga itself. Heavy German Losses The Russian victory at Nikopol has completed the disorganisation of the German positions in the Ukraine, and has introduced a fundamental change in the situation on the whole southern front, declares the noted Russian military commentaor, Colonel Ankimov. He states that 19 German divisions have been either destroyed or defeated with heavy losses in the past 10 days. Seven divisions, three of which were

tank units, were routed in the initial break-through towards Nikopol, and five were cut off and wiped out in the next phase. Seven were smashed up in the Nikopol bridgehead. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says that General Malinovsky’s and General Tolbukhin’s men are now clearing up the Nikopol battlefield after one of the most costly defeats, compared with the scale of action, ever inflicted against the Germans in Russia. Thousands of German bodies are drifting down the Lower Dnieper towards the Black Sea, or are lying caught up along the rough edges of the river banks. Hundreds of wrecked boats float with them. Aftermath of Battle The southern approaches to Nikopol are strewn with the aftermath of battle —silent guns, driverlees lorries, trackless tanks, wheelless carts, and dead horses.

After General Tolbukhin’s breakthrough cn February 5, the Russians had the greatest difficulty in following the enemy to the banks of the Dnieper, because the retreat roads were jammed with abandoned lorries. Before the Russians could push on, German dead, piled three feet high, had to be removed from several crossroads.