GENERAL RETREAT ORDERED

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIII, Issue 22478, 13 January 1943, Page 5

GENERAL RETREAT ORDERED

Germans in the Caucasus

Concentrating at Rostov By Telegraph—New Zealand Press Association—Copyright (Received 1 a.m.) LONDON, January 12. THE ANKARA correspondent of the Exchange * Telegraph Agency says that, according to reports reaching Turkish diplomatic quarters, the Germans have ordered a general retreat from the Caucasus to Rostov, where they are concentrating for defence. The Russian columns in the Caucasus have recaptured in their stride more than 50 towns and villages in the last 36 hours. They are using the heaviest types of tanks and are ploughing across the steppes through deep snow. The Red Army continues to press on the more northward sectors, in spite of stiffer resistance on the approach to the Northern Donetz, the last natural barrier before Rostov. Northward of the Don General Eremenko’s army, marching towards Salysk, has captured several more villages. The Stockholm correspondent of “The Times” says that along the Stalingrad-Kohretsk railway the Russians are meeting stronger resistance north of Manich River and lakes, but their progress is steady along the Lower Don, although it has been noticeably slowed up because the Germans have been greatly reinforced, and from Rostov to Kamenskaya are determinedly counterattacking. Persistent German attempts to regain ground in the Velikiye Luki region continue to be unavailing. Hard fighting and strong artillery fire by both sides are going on in the south-west where the Germans have hitherto barred the Russians from the valuable north-south railway at Sokolniki and Neval. The Russian Army group which captured six Caucasian towns yesterday was commanded by Lieutenant-General Maslennikov. Mr Harold Ickes, the American Secretary for the Interior, has received from President Roosevelt a communication directing him and other officials to give Russia preference “in whatever Russia wants and we are able to supply in munitions.”

A special Soviet communique states that a Soviet Army group yesterday, after stubborn fighting in the Northern Caucasus, occupied the towns and railway junctions of Georgievsk, Pyatigorsk, Kislovodsk. Mine .-alnevody, Budenovsk and Zheleznovovosk. Three district centres were also captured. Much booty was taken and is being counted. A further thrust between the Don and the Sal rivers apparently has brought the advancing Red columns to within about 50 miles from Rostov, while north of the Don the parallel advance is covering the last few miles to the lower Donetz. Along the railway south-west from Kotelnikovo more progress has been made in the direction of Salsk. The.. speed of the advance across the many water barriers in this area is explained by the fact of all the Russian rivers being frozen, thus presenting no worse obstacles than, for instance, a sunken road. Bitter Fighting There has been heavy fighting on the central front between Velikiye Luki and Nevel. The Germans have launched strong counter-attacks, but they have not regained any of the lost ground. The Germans have not yet admitted the loss of Velikiye Luki. On the lower Don the fighting is bitter, but six successive German counter-attacks in one area were repelled in one sector, and in a rearguard action elsewhere two enemy battalions were routed by Russian tanks and infantry. The Russians have captured many more places in this area and are approaching the Manich Valley. The Russian capture of Budenovsk 'otherwise Prikumsk) shows that their victories extended over a front of 125 miles north of Kislovodsk, on the Russian extreme left. Arkhangelskaya which is one of the district centres captured, lies about 12 miles south of Budenovsk on the road to Georgievsk. Alexandriskaya. another captured district centre, is 10 miles northwest of Georgievsk. Mineralnevodi,

on the edge of the great wheat-grow-ing steppes, is a key junction on the Baku-Rostov railway, 19 miles northwest of Georgievsk. Russian Tactics The Moscow correspondent of “Tire Times" emphasises the difficulties the Russians encountered in the advance over a network of tributaries of the Kuma and Terek rivers, confronting the left wing with natural obstacles on which the Germans based their defences, while the right wing was able ito move more rapidly across open country. Nevertheless it is remarkable how swiftly the Russians got infantry along the foothills to Kislovodsk and Pyatigorsk. Tire Russians have now crossed almost all the ravined country. Their tactics in rushing the rivers was illustrated when they encountered. a large concentration of guns, giant mortars and tanks on a river athwart their advance. The Russians resolutely made a forced assault on the enemy from close quarters, driving him back and capturing quantities of equipment and prisoners. Commentators in London say that the special Soviet communique issued on Monday, announcing the capture of six towns indicates the Russians’ greatest series of victories in one day in the present winter campaign. The captured towns are not only focal points on road and railway communications in the Caucasus, but are also the bastion of the German defences, which apparently are being rolled up as the Russians break through following the capture of Mozdok. The Russians thereafter in eight days advanced about 90 miles north-westward and narrowed the German front in the Caucasus to 200 miles, almost half its length when the Wehrmacht was hammering against Tuapse, over-running the edge of the Grozny oilfields and probing the trans-Caucasian military highways. The Russians are now astride the Rostov-Caucasian railway and control the Lower Caucasus communications, which suggests a more rapid drive on Rostov.