“LIKE CHAFF BEFORE THE WIND”

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIII, Issue 22476, 11 January 1943, Page 5

“LIKE CHAFF BEFORE THE WIND”

Germans Swept Back

In Russia

All Important Defence Lines

Broken

By telegraph—New Zealand Press Association—Copyright (Received 1 a.m.) LONDON, January 9. THE MAIN German forces are being swept like chaff before the wind toward the Donetz, also beyond the Sal River, says Reuter’s Moscow correspondent.

Street battles preceded the capture of Simovniki, where the Germans intended to make a stand to try to arrest the Russian advance. Simovniki was heavily fortified and defended by S.S. battalions, many guns, tanks and anti-tank obstacles. The German gun crews were wiped out to the last man.

The Russians, pushing on through dense fog and slush, are reported to be closing in on Georgieysk. The Germans everywhere are falling back and their resistance on all the important defence lines has been broken.

In spite of bad weather and the lack of roads, the Russians in the North-eastern Caucasus are continuing to push rapidly northward on a broad front and have now reached a point 20 miles from Pyatigorsk and are within 34 miles of the army advancing southward from the Kalmuk Steppes.

A non-stop artillery barrage is being maintained inside the Stalingrad factory belt, and the Germans are steadily being ejected from buildings.

Extremely heavy fighting is occurring south-west of Velikiye Luki. The Germans in the last 24 hours made a determined attempt to recapture Velikiye Luki, and flung in powerful air fleets, but timely Russian reinforcements enabled the attacks to be easily repulsed. The Russians held all their ground and also in some sectors occupied some of the enemy’s basic defence points.

In addition to last night's Soviet communique. 10 more named localities are announced as captured by the Russians in the Lower Don area. In the Northern Caucasus 12 further places have been captured. These in-, dicate an advance along an 85 mile front from Marinskaya, 20 miles due south of Georgievsk, to Pravokumsky, 70 miles north-east of Georgievsk. Other captured named places are roughly on a? line between these two towns. The railway station of Zolski, which has also been captured, is on the Ordzhonikidze-Rostov line, only 10 miles south of Georgievsk. Munitions Destroyed The Moscow radio says that in spite, of heavy anti-aircraft fire, Stormoviks from the Black Sea Fleet destroyed 78 waggons loaded with war material in a heavy raid on a railway, station near the front. The raid was carried out after the arrival of several trainloads of tanks and ammunition. Other Stormoviks simultaneously silenced an antiaircraft battery, wiping out many of the enemy. The towns and villages recently recaptured by the Russians include Novypavlovskaya. 15 miles south-east of Georgievsk and Zolsky, 10 miles south-east of Georgievsk. Both are on the Rostov-Baku railway, also Nikolskaya, 30 miles north-west of Kurskaya. Russian correspondents on the Caucasus front say that the retreating Germans are mining everything. “They would hang mines on the air if it was possible." Russian sappers in one sector cleared 34.000 mines in 13 days. One unit, under heavy fire, neutralised 700 in a day. Mr Stimson, at a press conference in Washington, said: “Our attention continues to be focused on the striking success of the Red Army, and a major German withdrawal in the Caucasus has apparently begun." Mr Stimson expressed the opinion that the German position in Russia was precarious. On all fronts the outlook was favourable. The Germans and Japanese had suffered few major reverses, and we must not underestimate their offensive capacity. Surging Along Surging forward along both banks of the Don, the Russians are increasingly developing their threat to Rostov and Salsk.. Correspondents in Moscow state that General Rokossovsky's armoured forces are sweeping northward from the Don across the steppes at the rate of 15 to 20 miles a day and are rapidly approaching the junction of the Don and the Donetz, 60 miles from Rostov. The Russians southward of the Don are pouring over the Tymlanskaya bridgehead and have, after racing 60 miles in 72 hours, broadened their front on the Sal to 40 miles. They are now less than 50 miles from Salsk, potentially endangering the German rear on the Kotelnlkovo—Tikhoretsk railway. The Red Armies striking across the Kalmuk steppes and the Russians driving north from the Mozdok area continue their swift advance against the Spa regions of the Caucasus, where new localities have fallen to the Russians. To the north the Russians have defeated a determined German attempt to recapture Velikiye Luki. A Reuter’s correspondent in Moscow states that the North Caucasian Army has reached Stepnoe, 40 miles north of Mozdok and less than 40 miles from the Russian army pushing south from Stalingrad, which reached Urozhanoe yesterday. The German forces attempted to make a stand at Stepnoe, but the Red Army attacked so strongly that the enemy was thrown ino a new retreat. The line of the retreat is jammed with abandoned German tanks, lorries and guns. Trains loaded with munitions were found at several railway junctions. The vanguard of the Soviet offensive down the Don River has passed Stakhov, 16 miles west of Orlovka. Two villages on the north bank of the Sal River have also been taken. A message from Stockholm reports that the Russians have entered Georgievsk where heavy street fighting is going on. Russian Lower Don Line The Moscow correspondent of the British United Press states that the Russians' line in the Lower Don area the StalingradVerevo railway westward of Tatsynskaya, thence eastward from Hermakovskuyn, which Is 20 miles ea Awards of the Donetz, thence westward from Suserkov and across the Don which it crosses at Murianskaya to the southwest of Orlovska. The line then goes south-eastward to Martyuovka, thence along the southern bank of the Sal crossing the river in the neighbourhood of Kharitinov. thence to the north bank of the Sal. crossing it and

turning southwards to the Ca—- u* via the region of Simovniki.

A special communique announces the capture of the town and railway station of Simovniki, after fierce fighting. Emphasising the difficulties facing the Germans after the’development of these Russian thrusts, the Moscow correspondent of “The Times” points out that the Salsk-Rostov railway, which the Germans converted to carry European gauge traffic, is scarcely less important than the Rostov-Tikhoretsk line for feeding the German southern armies. General Rokossovsky’s troons have secured all but a few miles of the trans-Don railway and east of Tatsynskaya, where flying columns successively took four places, they have formed a solid front with Yeremenko's men stretching across the Don bend. Liquidating several German garrisons behind the front after 20 hours, the Russians took these and other places in their stride, the Germans suffering further heavy losses in men and equipment. Thg Germans are strongly counter-attacking in the vicinity of the lower Don, using units consisting of single battalions supported b” tanks, but they failed to stem the Russian drive. The Red Air Force suppressed many German guns. The Russians on the Middle Don have pinned down and encircled a large, well-defined garrison which the Germans, with fresh reserves, fruitlessly sought to relieve. Von Hoth’s Plight Grave Additional details of the plight of General von Hoth’s entrapped forces show that they were threatened, under Hitler’s orders, with death and reprisals against their families if they surrender. Some men are committing suicide. Prisoners report that food is scarce. Deserters, who at night time are entering the Russian lines, state that their officers tried to shoot them while they were escaping. The Russians have created a new air force to support the present offensive. This was originally intended to combat German crack pilots flying the latest Messerschmitts. Russian veteran pilots, flying the latest Tak fighters, broke up the Luftwaffe’s effort to blockade Stalingrad’s airfields during the height of the battle for the city. The Taks are equal to German aeroplanes in steep climbing capacity and manoeuvrability. These formations are now being used offensively on a broad front for protecting low-flying Stormoviks and attacking Focke Wulf reconnaissance machines. The Berlin correspondent of a Stockholm paper states that German military spokesmen are now admitting that the Russian offensives are more dangerous than last winter. The Russians on many sectors have 10 to one numerical superiority, also a heavy superiority in war material. German picked troops are now fighting guerrillas behind their lines, but guerrilla activity is increasing and Russians are reinforcing them by parachute.