RED ARMY DRIVE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 January 1944, Page 4

RED ARMY DRIVE

STRIKING DEEPLY INTO GERMAN FRONT PROSPECT OF DECISIVE STRATEGIC BLOWS, INCREASING ENEMY DISORDER, (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copy righl) (Received This Day, 11.50 a.m.) LONDON, January 7. The Red Army has bitten in deeply and has fully established its position in Poland. General Vatutin’s forces, along an 80 mile front from a point beyond Rokitno to Polonnoye, 50 miles north-west of Berdichev, are accelerating their advance towards the Polish Ukraine and closing in on Sarny and Rovno. The British United Press Moscow correspondent declares that the whole ‘k of The German frontier defences as far ' south-westwards as Ostrog, nearly 80 miles from the original Russian break through west of Olevsk, are crumbling under the Russian blows. He adds that there is little doubt that General Vatutin is approaching a stage in the campaign where he hopes to deliver decisive strategic blows. A Reuter correspondent says that, according to a front line report, General Vatutin’s army is advancing like an avalanche. The spearhead, which has captured Rokitno, is now approaching Sarny. The speed and power of the Russian advance are bringing increasing disorder in the ranks of von Mannstein’s defeated army. The Germans are retreating hurriedly towards Shepetovka. Some German divisional staffs are changing the position of their headquarters twice daily, while units are becoming isolated and out of touch with those which are supposed to be supporting their flanks. A German military spokesman said the German and Russian armies are poised for decisive battles. “It is undeniable that the German armies,are experiencing a serious strain,” he added. “We make no attempt to disguise the fact that we have suffered reverses in these gigantic winter battles.”

NAZI ADMISSION

MAY WITHDRAW ENTIRELY FROM RUSSIA. PRESENT DIFFICULTIES POSSIBLY EXAGGERATED. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.10 p.m.) LONDON, January 7. A German spokesman is quoted by the Stockholm “Svenska Morgenbladet’s” Berlin correspondent as saying that there is a possibility that the German Army may be forced to withdraw entirely from Russia in face of what appears to be a giant Russian offensive along the whole front, from Leningrad to the Black Sea. The correspondent adds: “But the Nazis overemphasise their difficulties sometimes, so that if they achieve a succesful counter-stroke they can claim it has been accomplished against overwhelming odds.” The British United Press reports that one of General Vatutin’s columns, moving west from Rokitno, is already within 25 miles of Sarny, where railways from Leningrad, Riga, Warsaw and Vilna converge.. Other parts of the force mopped up 30 miles of the Korosten-Sarny railway, as far as Gorodnitsa. General Vatutin meanwhile is consolidating the Red Army’s advance in the Ukraine, behind the spearhead piercing Poland. The Russians in the Ukraine are maintaining three drives —firstly, pushing on along the railway from Berdichev to Shepetovka, which is the key position for a direct drive against Rovno; secondly, thrusting towards Vinnitsa and Jmerinka, which are the key to the Germans’ supply system in the area they still hold in South Russia; thirdly, curling back from Byelaya Tserkov south-eastwards towards the Cherkasy region, where ten German divisions on the west bank of the Dnieper, if they