RUSSIAN ARMIES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25625, 28 August 1944, Page 5

RUSSIAN ARMIES

DRIVE INTO RUMANIA

i STRETCH OF DANUBE CLEARED (Rec. 11.20 p.m.) LONDON, Aug. 27. The Russian armies driving into Rumania have cleared the enemy from a long stretch of the north bank of the Danube. The Red Army captured Ismail and Chilia, which is situated on the northern arm of the Danube delta, 16 miles inland and 57 miles east of Galati. A German military spokesman, quoted by the German Overseas News Agency, says that Soviet forces continue to advance from Bessarabia southwards and have occupied localities above the Northern Pruth, which runs into the Danube east of Galati. German torpedo boats on the Danube repelled Russian offensive thrusts over the Danube delta. The Moscow radio, detailing the annihilation of 12 enemy divisions encircled south-west of Kishinev, says the Red Army is tightening the huge ring around the German forces and chopping them up into isolated groups. Soviet tanks and dive-bombers are reducing one by one the centres of resistance. Prisoners state that the trapped troops are suffering from lack of ammunition, a shortage of artillery, and a lack of medical supplies and hospitals. The German, News Agency’s commentator, Major von Hammer, reports that the Russians have launched a general offensive with 12 to 14 infantry divisions and several tank corps, probably totalling 150,000 men, on a 40 to 50-miles front east of Warsaw.