DRIVING FORWARD

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 307, 30 December 1942, Page 5

DRIVING FORWARD

RUSSIANS ON DON FRONT

HAMMERING GERMANS HARDER IN AIR AND ON GROUND

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright!

(Recd. 8.15 p.m.) London, Dec. 28. The Russians have made a further advance on the middle Don front, where, according to the Moscow correspondent of The Times, the corridor through which the German southern armies are supplied has now been narrowed to about 100 miles. . How many Germans remain in the eastern part of the great Don bend, between the trans-Don railway and the lower stretches of the river is uncertain, but the situation developing promises the capture of a large area of steppe. , The correspondent says the trapped Army’s positions here are rapidly deteriorating'. There are indications that the Russians are beginning to hammer harder, both from the air and on the ground.

The distance the German reli the last week, as the Luftwaffe e the front, where Russian tanks ai The Daily Express’ correspondent at Stockholm says Russian official reports at present are veiling all operations, but it is clear part of the army is pushing southwestward toward the giant industrial Donetz city of Voroshilovgrad. A late cable from Moscow reports that the Russians to-day captured Sharnutovsky, 22 miles east of Kotelnikovo. and Verkhneablonsky. 15 miles north of Kotelnikovo. The Russians claim more successes on the central front, in the Velikiye Luki area, where four more inhabited localities were taken. They also advanced in the Caucasus, south-west of Nalchik, where an important height was occupied. Berlin radio, reporting that the temperature on the Russian front during Christmas was between 4 and 22 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, said: “This marks the beginning of this year’s ‘great cold’ in the East.’’ The Soviet forces, still sweeping forward in the middle Don aiea. are reported to be little more than 70 miles from Rostov, Hitler’s key supply base for south Russia. The Russians are driving towards Rostov along the railway that leads from Voronej and along the southern line from Stalingrad. Reports received to-day say that at some points the Red armies of the middle Don offensive are within 50 miles of their com- i fades fighting in the Stalingrad area. The two big Soviet offensives are thus developing rapidly as a hold tactical stroke threatening all the Nazi forces in south Russia. The great tactical importance of Rostov is that all enemy supplies and reinforcements for the German armies in the south must pass through this town, so that every mile the Russians advance increases the threat to the dangerously extended Axis forces around Stalingrad and in the Caucasus. The Soviet middle Don offensive is only 12 days old, but in that time the Russians have reoccupied 20.1)00 square miles of territory, captured or kii. ?d well over 100,000 enemy troops. ■ and destroyed or put to their own use huge quantities of valuable war material. The Red armies have virtually encircled Millerovo, the important junction on the Voronej-Rostov railway, • and it was announced to -night that a village only two miles east of Mills- ’ rovo has been retaken bv the Russians. Soviet advanced forces are driving towards Kamenskaya. 50 miles south of Millerovo, a town which commands both the Voronej and Stalingrad railway lines to Rostov. Another big Soviet force is closing in on Kamenskaya from the east. The wide sweep of the middle Don offensive has by-passed some enemy strongpoints in its rapid drive. This has been a marked characteristic of the Russian tetetics in this offensive, but the Russians have left behind adequate forces to cope with isolated enemv strongholds and are now busy monping them up. Correspondents say the Russians sometimes meet with quite stift local resistance from lh n German garrisons, but that the end is always the same. These Axis garrisons are no more than suicide units left behind to delay the Russian advance, and do not always succeed in that. Apart from the middle Don drive, the most encouraging feature on the Russian front is that the Russians are still hustling back the Axis forces south-west of Stalingrad which were designed and supplied to relieve the German divisions hemmed in between the Volga and the Don. These relieving forces are still in retreat and the Russians yesterday advanced another 10 miles towards Kotelnikovo. Several thousands of the enemv have been killed on this front and the Russians are recapturing a lone' string of populated places. The News Chronicle correspondent in Moscow says to-night that the Axis divisions trapped around Stalingrad are now hopelessly cut off from the outside world, and though the Russians have not yet taken large-scale offensive . action against them, their position is desperate. The Russians are still advancing in the Caucasus in spite of fog and heavy rain, and 1000 miles to the north, on Rjev-Velikye Luki front, the hard figh‘ing of the past few days has ended during the last 24 hours with a , marked Sow! advance.

!ief planes fly lias been doubled in ■annot risk using- airfields close to re audaciously thrusting through. IMPORTANT GAINS HOW NAZI POSITION IS THREATENED Rugby. Dec. 28. Further important gains between Kotelnikovo and the Stalingrad pocket were made by the Russians yesterday when they took positions in and near the south-east angle of the Don bend. Here they are 12 and 20 miles north-west of Kotelnikovo. The Germans presumably still hold the area inside the bend south of the River Chir, and therefore may still be only 40 miles from their besieged army, but if so their rear is now gravely threatened by the Russian advance towards the Lower Don, which has reached a point 33 miles north of Tsimlyansk. The Russians approaching the Donetz appear to be along a line about 20 miles from that river stretching from the north to east of Kamensko. It is thought that they are now mopping up pockets of resistance between the Middle Don and the Lower Don and Donetz.—B.O.W