Vast New Retreats

Timaru Herald, Volume CLV, Issue 22785, 8 January 1944, Page 5

Vast New Retreats

German Armies in Russia

A Berlin Forecast

By Telegraph—N»w Zealand Press Association—Copyright (Received 10 p.m.) LONDON, January 6.

THE RED ARMY, which crossed the old Polish border •* on Tuesday, has advanced nearly 35 miles inside Poland, says one report from Moscow, but with Moscow still silent officially regarding any movements west of Olevsk and Novograd Yolinsk, across the border, correspondents at Moscow dwell on General Vatutin’s concentration on disrupting the Ukrainian network of railways stretching from Rovno to Jmerinka. The British United Press says that some of General Vatutin’s columns are thrusting west along the railway from Berdichev to Shepetovka with a view to cutting the north-south line there, while further south the Red Army is beating the Germans back along the railway from Berdichev to the important railway junction of Vinnitsa, where the Germans are likely to make their next stand.

The German forces on the arc between Vinnitsa and Shepetovka are pouring back south-westwards over dirt roads designed to bear nothing bigger than farmers’ carts.

The enemy resistance south of Berdichev is intense. German Tommy-gunners stayed behind and held every house near the Vinnitsa highway in an effort to check the advance.

“We shan’t hold Russian territory merely for reasons of prestige,’’ the German military spokesman told the Berlin correspondent of the Stockholm Telegraph Bureau. “If circumstances force a total retreat from Russia this would be a secondary consideration. Our first aim is to maintain an unbroken front.”

The correspondent interprets the statement to mean that a large scale German retreat is imminent.

Another Offensive Unleashed A new Russian offensive at the northern end of the Dnieper Bend is reported over Axis controlled radio stations. According to the Vichy radio the new Russian offensive expected in the Cherkasy region has been unleashed in the Kirovograd and Krivoi Rog sectors, and is obviously aimed at forcing the Germans to evacuate the great Dnieper Bend. The radio broadcast a late dispatch from Berlin claiming that the greatest tank battle of the war has just concluded north of Krivoi Rog with a defensive German success. Heavy fighting is going on in the Vitebsk area and in the entire Dnieper Bend. The centre of gravity of the fighting is the area west of Jitomir. "Pravda” says that the most important result of General Vatutin’s Kiev offensive has been the rout of the crack German tank divisions, Including the Hermann Goering and the Das Reich divisions. This is particularly significant as these divisions admitted only real Germans—genuine Nazis trained in murder and taught to hold out in the darkest hour. Their losses are so huge only six or eight men remained in some companies. A frontline correspondent in a dispatch to “Izvestia” says: "I have not seen a single position, road, trench or foot of soil in the path of our troops advancing beyond Jitomir and Berdichev that does not bear traces of our shells. The voice of war can be heard everywhere as ever-growing columns of Russian guns and infantry march down the roads.” General Vatutin’s column is pressing on rapidly from Berdlchev over a broad front against the old Polish border, says the correspondent of the British United Press. This column has captured Novomlropol, half-way between Berdlchev and Shepetovka, and bv its capture of Zozov is now only 25 miles east-north-east of Vinnitsa. Other places captured by the Russians Include the rail station of Lipovets, 23 miles east of Vinnitsa, and 12 miles from the German escape railway leading from the Dnieper Bend and Odessa to Poland. Agencies also specify the capture of Covno on the railway from Berdlchev to Brest Litovsk. The Russian communique reports the capture of Shashkov, 35 miles due south of Byelaya Tserkov, Chodorkov, 28 miles south-west of Jitomir, and Gorodnitsa, which is the terminus of the railway line on the old Polish frontier 20 miles north-west of Novograd Vollnsk. The British United Press points out that each successive step backward loosens the Germans' hold on the Ukrainian railways and lessens their ability to manoeuvre troops to meet the Russian thrusts by rail. The Red Army, on the other hand, depends much less on railway communications. The Russians are accustomed to using other methods of transport. The gradual but inexorable loss of communications made the Germans frenziqdly cling to the important rail centre of Berdichev. Right to the moment of the Russians’ final attack the enemy were building fortifications

and bringing up reinforcements. It was only after the Red Army had fought from street to street that what was left of the once prosperous farming town was reclaimed. The Red Army column which took Byelaya Tserkov is pushing out southeast in the direction of Cherkasy. The Germans entrenched along the west bank of the Dnieper in the Cherkasy region represent a menace to General Vatutin’s left flank should he advance to the Dnieper Bend. The Dnieper Salient

Now that the Russians have captured Varashcha, military commentators in London think that the Germans will have to draw back from all their positions on the right bank of the Dnieper, from Kiev to Cherkassy. There are no signs yet that the Germans intend to leave the Dnieper Bend. They may be staying there for two reasons: First, Hitler may have told them not to yield an inch of Russian soil; secondly,' they may feel they are in no particular danger because they think the situation will be restored.

It is interesting to note that a German military spokesman has discussed the advantages of fighting on two fronts. London opinion is that this hints at a possible splitting of the German armies by the Russian thrust toward Rovno and Sarny. It is made clear, however," that it is wrong to think there is in the present situation any parallel to that of Stalingrad. There the German Army was surrounded, cut off and destroyed. If a split occurs each German army will operate independently, with its lines of communications to the main bases intact.

Reuter’s correspondent, cabling from Moscow to-night, said that General Vatutin is forcing the pace as he drives the fleeing Germans south-west of Berdichev, where the enemy’s losses in killed, wounded and taken prisoner were unofficially estimated at 12,000. The Germans are apparently concentrating on the defence of Vinnitsa with the object of holding off the Russians from the Odessa railway. Enemy sources continue to play up the magnitude of the attack by Russian tanks east of Kirograd. One commentator in Berlin called it the greatest tank battle of the winter campaign. Big Withdrawal Expected

Through its overseas service, which the German people do not hear, the Berlin radio forecast vast new retreats comparable with those of last summer and autumn, when the Germans fell back 350 miles from Kursk. A military commentator said: “Elastic defence and defence everywhere are again the order of the day for the High Command this winter. This probably means developments this winter similar to those seen during the summer and autumn In Russia. What does it matter if Russian territory is given up in order to preserve our army in view of the tasks facing the Wehrmacht elsewhere?”

A Russian communique issued tonight says that the Red Army north of Nevel continued its offensive and captured several inhabited places. Troops of the First Ukrainian Front captured Rokltno, 12 miles west of the old Polish border, and the Chudnov district centre of the Jitomir region. They also captured the district centre of the Rovno region, besides over eight inhabited places. The British United Press, emphasises that the capture of Rokitno is the first official Russian intimation that General Vatutin’s forces are across the old Polish border.