DRIVE BY RUSSIAN TANK COLUMNS

Southland Times, Issue 25709, 19 July 1943, Page 5

DRIVE BY RUSSIAN TANK COLUMNS

(United Press Association —Telegraph Copyright) (Rec. 6.30 p.m.) ' LONDON, July 17. The Russians continue to pour through the gaps in the German lines in the strongly-fortified Orel salient and the great bastion of Orel itself is in great danger, says Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. Although there is no confirmation so far of the report that the Russians are in the Orel suburbs, Moscow dispatches show a Red Army advance of at least 37 miles since the opening of the offensive. The Germans are showing signs of disorganization throughout the area north-west of Orel. They are throwing in all types of available troops, including sappers, cooks and elderly reservists, using them to guard bridges behind the fighting zone. Powerful Russian tank columns rushing ahead are cutting off the German line of retreat and encircling enemy strong-points. The Moscow correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain reports that the Germans have rushed up a new tank and a new infantry division in an attempt to halt the Russian offensive, but the Red Army flung back all counter-attacks and continued to advance, strongly supported by the Air Force, despite the adverse weather. The German-controlled G.T.B. News Agency in Stockholm says that the German military authorities are now admitting that the Russian attack must be regarded as a serious threat of a break-through. Nazi sources in Berlin say the Orel battle has reached a pitch of violence, which forbodes an orgy of destruction. The Russian artillery fire is terrific. Russian guns are placed every seven yards in some sectors north of Orel. Latest indications are that the advanced Russian patrols on Friday were operating on the Bryansk-Orel railway, stated Reuter’s Stockholm correspondent. It is likely that the railway has been cut by now. This would mean the disruption of one of General von Kluge’s two supply fines and the German garrison at Orel has lost its best means of retreat. The German overseas radio discounted Russian claims oi deep breaches in the German positions at Orel.

It is reported from Moscow that American Sherman and British Churchill tanks are in the spearhead of the Russian Orel offensive. Large groups of American-built bombers have joined in the air attacks on all fronts. They accounted for a large share of the. 100 German tanks destroyed from the air in one sector. By its great counter-stroke east and north of Orel the Red Army has turned the tables on the Germans, with a vengeance, comments the military correspondent of The Times. German commentators have described it as no more than a diversionary attack designed to relieve the pressure against the Kursk salient. An attack which has mauled 10 German divisions in three days and breached a strongly

fortified line on a 48-mile front and threatens to isolate the Orel “hedgehog” and to carry the Russians into the northern Ukraine is no mere diversionary attack. It has already converted the German offensive from. Orel and Byelgorod into a costly failure. Its further success may involve General von Kluge’s army group in a major disaster. At least 40 Axis divisions, including a number of picked armoured units, have been identified on the front and are known to have suffered extremely heavy losses. More than this, the enemy has been outgeneralled. Tactically the enemy’s reversion to the methods of 1940, when the infantry were relegated to mere mopping up behind the charging tanks and diving planes, has been unsuccessful.