ON FROM VELIKIYE LUKI

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLXII, Issue 15240, 5 January 1943, Page 3

ON FROM VELIKIYE LUKI

NO HALT IN ADVANCE. United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, January 3. Earlier messages stated that although the Germans continually assert that they are successfully counter-attacking on most fronts, despatches from Moscow indicate that the Soviet offensives are now sweeping back the Germans from the vicinity of Velikive Luki to the blizzard-swept Caucasus. The Germans ar© certainly fightdug a stiff rearguard action in an effort to retrieve the situation, hut the Russians are brushing aside the covering troops. An important Russian thrust is down the Kotel-nikovo-Tikhorefcsk railway, which the Russians have cleared to Dubovskaya, which is 30 miles south-west of Kotelnikovo and 100 miles from Sal.sk. Possession of the communication centre of Salsk would enable the Russians to sever the Germans m the Caucasus from tlieiir base at Rostov. Moreover, the occupation of Elkhotovo suggests that the development of an offensive towards Prokhladnava (nortli-east of Nalchik) may split the Axis armies in the Caucasus. The Russians hold Nizhnekurmoyarskaya, on the north hank of the Don, 22 miles eastward of Zymlyatlskaya. ’They have also taken Malolcuhnaya, on the south bank of the Don, 17 miles from Zymlyanskaya and Zhukovskaya. The Germans have been forced hack 40 miles between Nalchik and Vladikavkaz, and the Russians are now about 20 miles south-east of Nalchik. after by-passing and then capturing the strongly held town of Elkhotovo. The Russrans,, advancing to the north-east, crossed the Terek River and ’n at least two points are now threatening a section of the railway between Grozny and Prokhladnava. Renter’s Moscow correspondent says that the Russians, pressing on from Velikiye Luki towards 'Sokolniki. have gained control of almost the whole section of the MoscowRiga railway between the two towns. They are fightng north of Velikiye Luki where four railways and ten motor roads meet.

Moscow announced that the railway service between Moscow and Velikiye Luki lias again started on the two main lines. The Russians previously cut the Leningrad-Eiev railway south-west of Nevel, a big junction, on one of the main European lateral lines. The loss of Sokolniki would be a more hitter blow for the Germans than the loss of Velikiye Luki. because this would cut the main north-south rail communications between the central front and the troops on the Lake Ilmen, and Leningrad sectors. This strategy emphasises the Russians’ aim in separating the Axis armies, and cutting their lines of communications. which are doubly important in winter.