RUSSIANS SWING SOUTH

Timaru Herald, Volume CLI, Issue 22184, 30 January 1942, Page 5

RUSSIANS SWING SOUTH

Smolensk Threatened Germans Suffer Severely By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 29. The Russian forces are swinging south, and are seriously threatening the important centre of Smolensk. In spite of the persistence of gruelling weather the Russians continue their remarkably strong pressure from the region of the Valdai Hills. The drive westwards has necessitated the bringing up of German reinforcements from their winter quarters to the Baltic States to prevent the severance of the important Vitebsk-Leningrad railway, and even if the Russians do not persist immediately to their drive to the railway these forces must be maintained. The chief Russian pressure seems at present to be directed southward from the Rjev-Velikiyeluki railway. The Russians, according to the Kuibyshev radio, now stand “before Velikiyeluki,” but how close is uncertain. What is certain Is that they are hammering their way southward in an ambitious drive which will possibly develop into a vast encircling movement which will force the Germans in the Rjev and Viazma regions to withdraw to be cut off. Toropa actually Is more westward than Smolensk and the Russians from this area are already within 100 miles of Smolensk. The reports do not indicate the exact progress to Smolensk from the northeast, from the east and from the south-east, but General Zhukov's armies to all these regions are apparently also about 100 miles from Smolensk. The Russians may even aim to sever both the north and south and east and west railways by a direct drive to Vitebsk which, with the drive through Roslavl to Rosha, will imperil immense German forces. The formidable German resistance offered after the withdrawal from Mojaisk suggests that General Zhukov’s immediate aim is more likely to be the closing of the pincers at or east of Smolensk before attempting a further Westward drive. The Russians are reticent regarding the details of these tremendous operations, but the progress everywhere on these central sections of the front continues most satisfactorily. The Russians are also maintaining their pressure westward and north-westward of the Volkhov front. The Germans admit that the Russians have made progress towards the envelopment of Mursk from the direction of Livny, also that heavy Russian attacks continue without abatement from the east and south-east of Kharkov though they have, according to the Germans, “everywhere been checked.” Hie Germans say that the fighting has spread to the east coast dt the Crimea and the Arabat Peninsula. The Russians retain Kerch Peninsula and the Sebastopol area, but the position there or elsewhere to the Crimea is obscure. The Russian night communique states: "On Wednesday our troops were engaged In violent fighting, inflicting heavy losses on the enemy and continuing their advance. On Tuesday 29 enemy planes were destroyed, 12 in aerial combat and 17 on the ground on enemy aerodromes. We lost seven planes. On Wednesday two enemy planes were destroyed near Moscow.” “Whatever happens to the Pacific Germany remains the main foe,” said Professor Gavrilov, the well-known Communist party spokesman to a speech. “Ibe Churchill-Roosevelt conversations to Washington fully support the aims we intend to carry out to 1942. Britain and America see the solution to their problem to 1943,,,-We cannot postpone for two years the liquidation of Hitler and Germany. A programme for eliminating the aggressor to the Pacific to 1943 is obviously due to the special character of the Pacific theatre of war.” The Russians have captured 79 more towns and are smashing the enemy north-west and south-west of Moscow, says the Moscow correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain. They are on the threshold of double defence lines, defence works a mile and a-half apart, apparently running from Velikiyeluki to the region of Viazma, thence to a point near Bryansk. The lines are already threatened on both flanks. Land of Flames An agency correspondent with the Red Army west of Mojaisk states that the experience of travelling for two days with the advancing Red Afthy past Borodino and Uvarovo to the present battlefield is like passing through a land of flames. “Beaten, shivering, despairing Germans lay in the villages and towns which had been ravaged by the forced retreat of the German troops,”, fie states. "Crows soared over the smouldering ruins and over the scattered bodies of killed Russians and Germans half covered by snow, while isolated groups of men, women and children looked in vain for their homes on returning from hiding in the forest. “Along the roads marched the Red Army men, with guns, ammunition and field kitchens. They were warmly dressed and wore felt boots. They looked tough and their morale was excellent. Aeroplanes patrolled overhead all day, but we did not see a single German aircraft. The only visible signs of German equipment were wrecked enemy tanks, lorries, armoured cars and field guns which had been left in the hasty retreat. They had been smashed and set on fire by the Germans. “Another feature was the German cemeteries spreading along the wgy. But there were also living Germans lingering here and there. As the colonel who was conducting us round said, pointing to his automatic rifleman accompanying us, ‘We are prepared for any emergency. There are many groups of enemy soldiers still wandering in the forests, cut off from the main body of the retreating army’. "German prisoners had not heard that Germany was at war with the United States and their faces showed surprise at the news. They said that they had suffered severely from the cold and were clothed insufficiently. ‘We have not changed our underwear for three weeks,’ they said, ‘and we have plenty of lice and are suffering from stomach trouble, but the main source of our discomfort is the cold.’ ”