RAPID ADVANCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 December 1942, Page 3

RAPID ADVANCE

IN SPITE OF DIFFICULT WINTER CONDITIONS GERMAN POWER OF RESISTANCE WEAKENING. FAILURE TO ESTABLISH FIRM DEFENSIVE LINE. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) LONDON, December 27. The Red Army’s startling Christmas successes show clearly that Marshal Timoshenko plans to encompass the fifty-five German divisions south of Voronezh in a complete ring, the opposite points of its diameter being Stalingrad and Rostov, says the military correspondent of the “Daily Express.” This involves the recapture of Rostov, on which the Russians are closing. Their progress under difficult winter conditions is phenomenal, suggesting that the Germans’ power of resistance is breaking down. They have failed to consolidate a defensive line anywhere. Marshal Timoshenko at the ‘ gates of Rostov would seal the fate of the Germans in north Caucasia. A grim picture of the ominous situation threatening the Germans comes from “The Times” correspondents. The Moscow correspondent says that the Russians have been advancing from the Don to the Donetz in the past 72 hours at a pace scarcely less than that at which the panzers thundered down south-eastward in the same region last summer. The Stockholm correspondent 1 re ports that Millerovo is now nearly a closed pocket. The Russians have cut the railway to the north and south, and are also west of Millerovo. The plight of the. large German force east of Millerovo-has become critical since the Russians swept along the railway from Stalingrad and captured Tatsynskaya which was, an event of major importance. It brought the Russians within 100 miles of Rostov and the Sea of Azov. ENEMY BEWILDERED. The German command appears somewhat bewildered by the force and multiplicity of the Russian blows. Regions the Russians have embraced from the middle Don contain a number of isolated German groups whose supplies are a major problem at a most inconvenient moment when Goneral von Hoth requires a large measure of the Luftwaffe’s assistance. The relative feebleness of von Hoth's efforts in spite of plentiful material is attributed to lack of fuel, large dumps of which the Russians have captured or destroyed. The Russians’ steady progress from i the middle Don, assisted by Stormoviks, is increasingly telling on the I

: whole southern German salient. The German army group in the salient is I losing ground in every active sector. ; The Russians have captured scores of towns and villages, some strongly . garrisoned, placing in Russian hands practically,2o,ooo square miles of territory. The high number of German prisoners taken duirng the offensive strikingly contrasts with last winter’s fighting ‘when there was a saying in the Red Army that taking one man alive necessitated killing 2000. The proportion of killed and taken prisoner today is almost equal. BRAVE DEEDS IN CAUCASUS. Referring to other fronts, correspondents say that the Russian advance north-west of Nalchik was made in the teeth of formidable obstacles which' sappers heroically cleared and clipped off the salient which endangered the trans-Caucasus highways to the Grozny oilfields. The Russians drove back crack German alpinists 30 miles from fortified positions, forcing the abandonment of many tanks. South-west of Stalingrad, the Russians smashed an extremely dangerous German army consisting of six divisions, including three panzers, attempting to break through and relieve von Hoth. The Russians have now advanced 30 miles. There is a marked revival of activity at Stalingrad, the Russians stormling many forts and ejecting the Ger[rnans from an important factory.