Swift Soviet Advance

Timaru Herald, Volume CLV, Issue 22792, 17 January 1944, Page 5

Swift Soviet Advance

Favourable Change in Weather Germans Driven Into Ice-covered Marshes By Telegraph—N>w Zealand Press Association—Copyright (Received 6.30 p.m.) LONDON, January 15. T'HE RED ARMY is advancing with startling speed in * its thrust across the Pripet Basin. Detachments are now 25 miles beyond Mozyr, and the Russians are sending out spearheads south and west for the complete destruction of German units driven into the ice-covered marshes. A sudden favourable change in the weather is aiding the Red Army’s advance. The marshes, which have been practically impassable for tanks, lorries and heavy guns, now offer a firm surface in many places. German sources hold out no hope of the early checking of the Russian advance on the White Russia front. The Berlin radio stated that the Soviet offensive has by no means exhausted itself, and will probably continue on a no less massive scale. The Russian advance continues both north and south of the Pripet Marshes, and the commentator stated that the Germans are greatly outnumbered. He admitted the Russian break throughs. Printed copies of an appeal from the German High Command to troops have been found in the pockets of German dead and on prisoners in the Mozyr area, says Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. The appeal read: “The enemy must be halted far away from the Fatherland. He must be halted in spite of all the break throughs he has made. He must be halted by a living wall defending the German Reich.”

Berlin radio reports massed Russian advances south and south-west' of Cherkasy, where the armies of General Vatutin and General Koniev are squeezing the German salient, also powerful Russian attacks in the Vitebsk area and a Russian penetration into the German defence lines north-west of Nevel. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says the German counter-attacks east of Vinnitsa have reached a new pitch of intensity. Tanks are being knocked out in dozens and wide areas are strewn with German dead.

In their rapid advance west of Mozyr, Soviet cavalry crossed the Prlpet river at two points and reached the Pinsk - Kalinkovichi railway, according to a Moscow message. The capture of Mozyr appears to have disorganised the German supply system on the whole central sector. The German rout on the 200-mile stretch across the Pripet Marshes from the River Beresina to Rovno shows no sign of ending. The Russian advance, particularly from Kallnkovlchl. north-west from Mozyr west, from Sarny in all directions and on a broad front toward Rovno. continues. Meanwhile the Russians are holding their gains along a line from Cjakching nearly to Shepetovka. Vinnitsa and Uman. The Germans expended a great effort in the last few days, particularly against the . y'-W ~ ~i'_ ..... 'A i

forward Russian positions of Vinnitsa, where General Vatutin’s men recently seized, places only 20 miles from the Odessa-Lwow railway. So far the enemy have little or nothing to show for it. Pending the outcome of their efforts to hold up the Russians’ drive to the south, the Germans are remaining within their two deep pockets on the Dnieper. All the time the Russians are stretching out toward the west and swiftly broadening and consolidating their hold on North-western Ukraine and Southern White Russia between the two halves of the German front. Murderous Fighting The fall of Vinnitsa will mean the end of the German armies m Southern Russia, says the Moscow correspondent of the British United Press Marshal von Mannsteln, after five days of murderous fighting east of Vinnitsa, is still throwing all the tanks and Infantry available into counter-blows in an effort to stem the unflagging Russian pressure. The correspondent points out that General Vatutin is using the same tactics as he employed against the massive German counter-blows from Jitomlr. He Ls managing to halt the present German thrusts with artillery without using tanks. General Vatutin In the Jitomir battles waited until the German attacks were exhausted and then, with hundreds of fresh tanks, smashed clean through to Poland. Tire same situation is at present building up before Vinnitsa with uncanny similarity. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent tonight, said that General Vatutin's forces had driven an enormous wedge beyond the Sarny-Stepan line and in the drive toward Kilki were alreadv within sight Of the Gorin River, the third water barrier met since the Polish frontier was crossed. The German News Agency’s commentator says the frontier of the Baltic States is the main object of the new Russian attacks from the areas north-west of Lake Ilmen and Oranienbaum. He added: “We have well rested troops there in well fortified positions. The enemy will find them a hard nut to crack.” The Berlin radio’s frontline reporter »ays the Red Army has made a new landing from the Sea of Azov behind the German lines on Kerch Peninsula The Russian offensive against the Crimea has readied unprecedented dimensions. The Russians for some time have concentrated powerful forces and also have many heavy weapons on Baksay Spit, opposite Taman Peninsula. The Russians have hurled in air formations and laid down a drumfire barrage against the German and Rumanian defenders. The fighting raging in the hilly country north of

Kerch is the prelude to an attack on Kerch Itself. The Germans lost 10,000 men killed in five days in the fighting east of Vinnitsa, and their casualties are growing as Marshal von Mannsteln hurls in tank and infantry reserves in an effort to achieve a decisive break through, says the Moscow correspondent of the British United Press. The battles in the Vinnitsa and Uman sectors are regarded in Moscow as of supreme importance. Defeat for the Germans would open the way for spectacular new Russian drives southwest against Jmerinka and the vital Lwow-Odessa railway, and south across the Dnieper Bend escape lines. The Moscow radio, detailing the work of guerrillas in the Crimea, says that they cut communications between the two bases of Simferopol and Sebastopol for several days. Guerrillas in one area captured an Inhabited place and held on to it for five days in the face of savage German attacks.

According to "Pravda" only 2000 of Mozyr's pre-war population of §O,OOO remained in the town when the Red Army entered, and only 2000 of Kolenkovichi's pre-war population of 15,000 remained.