FIFTH OFFENSIVE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 January 1944, Page 3

FIFTH OFFENSIVE

IN PERIOD OF SEVEN WEEKS RUSSIAN DRIVE ON MOSIR. TENSE STRUGGLE ON UPPER BUG. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.40 a.m.) s RUGBY, January 13. ‘The Russians’ new drive in the Mosir region is the fifth offensive in seven weeks, and, as far as can be judged, is aimed along the northern side of the Fripet Marshes. One of the places reported captured is Domanovichi, on the railway about 20 miles north of Mosir, and the Russian positions now tend to outflank both Mosir itself and Kalinkovochi, an important railway junction, where the northsouth and east-west lines intersect.

Three branches of these lines are now held by the Russians, and the fourth goes westwards to Pinsk and Brest Litovsk. It is too early yet to assess the weight behind the Russian attack in this region, but if Ihe Russians make a further substantial advance they will have the advantage in the north they have in their deep thrust to Sarny their flank will be covered to some extent by the Pripet Marshes. For a month oast 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. The German counter-moves cast of Vinnitsa are described in Moscow mes-

sages as so far on a local scale. In one narrow sub-sector, the Germans concentrated hundreds of tanks and large forces of infantry in a night-long battle, to break through. Tanks inflicted heavy losses, but were unable to prevent local gains. This is clearly the most 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 buttresses of Smyela and Krivoi Rog, on either side of the Kirovograd offensive. Good progress, however, is being made in both sides and north of the Pripet Marshes, where the Russian drive on Pinsk threatens the south end of the White Russian front, via Gomel.