ZHUKOV’S ADVANCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25499, 31 March 1944, Page 3

ZHUKOV’S ADVANCE

CAPTURE OF KOLOMEA SERIOUS EFFECT ON ENEMY RUGBY, Mar. 29. Marshal Zhukov’s further considerable advance on the first Ukrainian front and the capture of Kolomea will seriously affect the German situation in the Southern Ukraine. Simultaneously with this, Marshal Koniev’s 20mile advance west of Mogilev Podolsk has narrowed the bottleneck of the German sailent south of Proskurov to 10 miles, and is likely to close it at any moment, entrapping a great part of the First Panzer Army. Another important forward movement is a Russian 30-mile advance on a 50-mile front along the JmerinkaOdessa railway and the capture of Slobodka, while, combined with this, General Malinovsky has driven towards Odessa on a front of 45 miles south and east of Prevonaisky, thus presenting another formidable threat to Odessa, which is already imperilled by the capture of Nikolaev. Odessa’s importance to the German forces in the Crimea may compel Fieldmarshal von Kleist to make it a “To-

bruk,” detaching portion of the German Sixth Army for a garrison, relying on evacuation by sea if the situation becomes untenable. German shipping shortage in the Black Sea has reduced them to a reliance on lighters and barges for supplies to the Crimea. If Odessa falls these craft must risk the open sea to reach Rumania. It is not thought that the capture of Nikolaev by the Russians will have an immediate effect on the naval situation in the Black Sea. It can be assumed that it has been pretty well destroyed by the Germans, and some time may elapse before it can be used.

“ The German front from the Bug to the Dniester and the Pruth is comparatively lightly held and the German forces for three weeks have been facing a numerical superiority of 10 to 1,” said the German News Agency military commentator, General von Olberg. “This should be remembered in appraising the German High Command’s achievements. German disengaging movements are still not completed.” The Russian commentator, Colonel Akimov, speaking over the Moscow radio, said: “ The German strategic position in the Ukraine is exceptionally grave and their latest defeats are so crushing that they are unable to slip in huge forces, with little likelihood of being able to restore the front.”