Tense Fighting at Mozyr

Timaru Herald, Volume CLV, Issue 22791, 15 January 1944, Page 5

Tense Fighting at Mozyr

Enemy Defences Pierced

Disorderly Retreat West of Sarny

By Telegraph—tow Zealand Press Association—Copyright (Received 11 p.m.) LONDON, January 13.

PUSHING through the heart of the Pripet Marshes, * Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says that the Russians have reached the inner defence ring, between five and seven miles deep, around Mozyr. Tense fighting is going on with Russian planes bombing the Germans in dug-outs and trenches.

Soviet forces have now reached the frontier established after the Russians marched into Poland in 1939. The Moscow radio to-day announced that the Russians have reached the Polish river Bug at a point 115 miles west of the old frontier. The Bug here forms the line of the new 1939 border.

Reuter’s correspondent in Moscow reports that the Germans are retreating in disorder west of Sarny with the Russians pressing on towards Kowel. The Russians have reached points within 40 miles south-east of Pinsk. General Dietmar, the German military spokesman, to-day gave another grave warning to the German people. “At present we have only one aim in mind—to fight for time,” he said. “Armageddon seems to be drawing to its climax. Once again the German front in the east is being subjected to another extremely grim trial. New and enormous Soviet offensives may be expected shortly.”

The fighting on the Eastern Front has reached its highest pitch since the opening of the war between Germany and Russia, according to the German Overseas News Agency, which added that there is no doubt that the enemy is throwing his entire reserves into the battle.

Reuter’s Moscow correspondent reports that Mozyr is completely encircled. Russian guns are already straddling the last roads from the towm. The German chances of bringing up reinforcements are rapidly vanishing. The Red Army west and south-west of Sarny, after throwing back the enemy, is successfully forging ahead, says the Moscow radio. The Germans have thrown fresh troops into the battle straight from the march and are rushing reserves to the front from other sources. "Red Star" states that fierce engagements are going on east of Vinnitsa, where the Russians are driving to the Odessa railway. Violent German counter-attacks there were repelled. Large German tank and infantry forces tried to cut the Russian troops in two by an outflanking movement, but Soviet artillery and Stormoviks destroyed or disabled half the enemy force. The roads of the Red Army's advance on the front of many hundreds of miles are strewn with smashed and mauled Germhn equipment and thousands of German bodies. Fall of Mozyr Expected The Germans are fleeing in disorder along both banks of the Pripet River after the Russians blasted a wide gap in the fortifications between Moygr and Kilenkovichl, cables the Moscow correspondent of the British United Press. Russian cavalry are infiltrating deep into the German rear and hacking the enemy down with sabres, massacring them in large numbers. Russian ski battalions also penetrated the German rear, finishing off other German units. Russian armoured units have begun storming the main part of Mozyr itself. The fall of the city is regarded in Moscow as a foregone conclusion. The Russian supplementary communique states that the enemy converted the whole area between Mozyr and Kolenkovichi into a powerful defensive line studded with artillery, mortars and machine-gun, and the Russians are having to fight hard to break his resistance. More than 2000 Germans were killed' yesterday in the fighting east of Vinnitsa, which is assuming a most violent character. Some localities changed hands several times. The enemy suffered heavy losses without achieving any success. Aid from Guerrillas With enemy sources admitting to-day that strong Red Army columns are still pouring into Poland, the Moscow correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain states that advanced Russian units are already moving on to firm ground beyond the fringe of the Pinsk Marshes, west of Sarny, and with the aid of guerrillas are continuing to sweep through the Rowno forests. A grim struggle F going on over the bleak marshy terrain north of Sarny. The Germans, hampered by poor communications and difficulty In exploiting their panzers, are being pushed back into the guerrilla ridden Pripet Marshes. The Moscow correspondent of the British United Press states that Ukrainian guerrillas, co-operating with General Vatutin's men, were largely responsible for the capture of Sarny The country between Ovelsk and Rowno is among: the wildest anywhere in Europe. It is composed of great forests interspersed with almost roadless swamps—ideal for guerrilla operations. When General Vatutin burst across the Polish border guerrillas massed in the Rowno forests until two long columns of German Infantry and tanks had rolled eastward with the object of reinforcing the garrison of Sarny. The guerrillas ambushed the enemy columns and launched a full-scale attack. The guerrillas pinned down the Germans in one of the heaviest battles guerrillas have ever fought. The Germans tried to disengage but the guerrillas clung to them until the regular Red Army units arrived. The enemy columns were wiped out and the aid the Sarny garrison was awaiting never arrived. Red Army tanks, after smashing through Sarny, continued along the road west of the town which is parallel to the one on which the Ger-

mans are retiring: Russian tank men poured a hail of fire into the. German columns until they were wiped out. The Russians’ new drive in the Mozyr region is the fifth offensive in seven weeks and, as far as can be Judged, it is aimed along the northern side of the Pripet Marshes. One of the places reported captured is □omanovichi on the railway about 20 miles north of Mozyr and the Russian positions now tend to outflank both Mozyr itself and Kalinkovocfli, an important railway Junction where the lines from the north and south and the east and west intersect. Three branches of these lines are now held by the Russians. The fourth goes west to Pinsk and Brest Litovsk. It is too early yet to assess the weight behind the Russian attack in this region, but if the Russians make a further substantial' advance they: v.-ill have the advantage in the north that they have in their deep thrust to Sarny—then' flank will be covered to some extent by the Pripet Marshes. For a month the armies north of the marshes have been bogged down and the new offensive suggests that the ground is now frozen hard enough to make possible large scale movements of armour and guns. Counter-Moves Fail The German counter-moves east of Vinnitsa are described in Moscow messages as so far on a local scale. In one narrow sub-sector the German concentrated hundreds of tanks and large forces of infantry in a night-long battle to break through. The tanks inflicted heavy losses but they were unable to prevent local gains. This is clearly the mast important part of the front, where the Germans have announced their determination to make a stand along the upper Bug to protect the vital railway behind it. In the Dnieper bend the Russians are held up for the present by the buttress of Smyela and Krivoi Rog on either side of their Kirovograd offensive. Good progress is being made on both sides of the Pripet Marshes, where the Russian drive on Pinsk threatens the south end of the White Russian front via Gomel. The Berlin correspondent of a Stockholm paper states that military circles in Berlin admit that the Russians have smashed through the German lines in the Vitebsk area and are now fighting in the German rear. The Russians are attacking with 26 divisions north and south of Vitebsk. Gateway to South Poland The Germans are still making frenzied counter-attacks east of Vinnitsa; but are being forced back more and more to the north, where General Vatutin’s men are only 13 miles northeast of Shepetovka, which is the main gateway to South Poland. Moscow military commentators declare that this area is more important than Sarny. Reuter’s correspondent describes the savage fighting east of Vinnitsa as a battle of guns versus tanks. Marshal von Mannstein mustered all the available tanks in a determined effort to halt the Russians, but General Vatutin assembled powerful concentrations of artillery which won the final battle of the Kiev bulge at Jitomir. Fierce sea engagements are going on in the Kerch Stratit, where storms have been raging for a few days. The Scandinavian Telegraph Bureau states that the Red Army to-day penetrated the German positions west of Mozyr and breached the town’s defences at several points. (A Red Army operating west of Mozyr means that the town has been outflanked). To-night’s Soviet communique says that troops of the White Russian front under General Rokossovsky have developed an offensive and occupied more than 40 inhabited places, including Dudighi. 10 miles north of Mozyr. The Russians have closely approached the regional cetnre of White Russia 1 Mozyr) and the large rail junction of Klenkovichi. The Russians west and south-west of Sarny captured several localities and a number of railway stations, including Tutovichi, 10 miles west of Sarny. Also, west and southwest of Novograd Volynsk, they have captured more than 60 places, including Korets, 40 miles east of Rovno, also the railway station at Maidanvi, 13 miles north-east of Shepetovka. The Red Army west and south-west of Berdichev fought offensive battles and occupied several localities, also east of Vinnitso, and repelled strong counterattacks.