GARRISON ANNIHILATED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 2, 4 January 1943, Page 5

GARRISON ANNIHILATED

REFUSAL TO SURRENDER NAZIS LOSE ONE OF MAIN BASTIONS ON CENTRAL FRONT (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Reed. 6.30 p.m.) London, Jan. 2. Within a few minutes of a German radio statement, “on almost all sectors of the eastern front comparative calm prevails,” came a special Russian communique an nouncing, among other important gains, the capture of the important railway town of Velikiye Luki, the German “fortress centre” west of Rjev, on the central front, and Elista, capital of the Kalmuk republic, 180 miles southward of Stalingrad and the same distance westward of Astrachan. The special communique states: “Our troops on the central front, as the result of a decisive storm attack, occupied the town and railway junction of Velikiye Luki. As a result of the refusal of the German garrison to lay down its arms, the garrison was annihilated. Our troops have also occupied Elista. South-westward of Stalingrad our troops occupied the district centre of Germokihin. In the northern Caucasus our troops occupied the district centre of Chikola. Our troops captured prisoners and booty.” The capture of Velikiye Luki, only 95 miles from the Latvian frontier and 120 miles from Smolensk, is the culmination of the seven weeks’ offensive. It was captured by the Germans on August 27, 1942. It lies on the Riga-Rjev-Moecow railway. With the capture of Velikiye Luki by the Russians the German armies lost one of their four main bastions on the central front. Velikiye Luki was taken at bayonet point. The Russians began to storm the city at dawn with a hurricane of artillery and mortar fire, after which masses of infantry and tanks poured through breaches in the fortifications. .

Russian artillerymen took their guns deep into the defences and silenced the forts and machinegun nests with direct fire. The next phase was a series of savage street battles. The Germans resisted from house to house as the Russians attacked under smoke screens.

. The Red Army captured an order fflgned by General Sherer threatening that any German who ceased fighting would be shot and his family penal■ed.

The handsome city has changed beyond recognition, with libraries, hospitals, club houses, colleges and schools destroyed. Only women and children were left. They crept from the cellars to greet the Red Army. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent ■ays the capture of Velikiye Luki places the Russians astride the Sokolniki-Rjev-Moscow railway, one of the main German supply lines from Reich via Riga, at a more Westerly point than was previously reached.

The Russians now nave the possibility of thrusting westward against Sokolniki, on the Leningrad-Vitebsk railway. Hitler’s principal rail link between Leningrad and the central front. The German chances of holding Rjev through the remaining three months of the winter are greatly lesseed.

Berlin radio denied that Velikiye Luki had fallen and added that almost all sectors of the eastern front were comparatively calm, with only local engagements on the Terek and Kalmuk steppes between the Volga and the Don.

How near the Germans were to rescuing von Heth’s trapped divisions south-west of Stalingrad was fold by the Moscow correspondent of The Times. Von Manstein’s drive on December 12 was only halted after a violent struggle on the River Aksai, between the Don and the Stalingrad-Tikho-retsk railway. Powerful German forces, using 600 tanks, in twelve days and at terrible cost advanced 36 miles.

The Russian front sagged dangerously, but held, and important Russian reinforcements arrived on Christmas Eve, enabling a counteroffensive to be launched in which tanks encircled, ambushed, and harried the enemy. The battle swiftly moved to Kotelnikovo, where the Germans hoped to stage a recovery, but the Russian impetus forestalled the regrouping by the enemy. The Red Army recovered in three days what they had iost in twelve. Tanks and lorried infantry stormed Kotelnikovo, completing the German defeat. The Germans had reached half-way to their objectives, bu before they were rolled back they had lost more than 26,000 killed or captured. The Russian spearheads are relentlessly pushing the Germans from Kotelnikovo to Salysk, and are also apparently closing in on Rostov. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says th? Germans are suffering heavy casualties north-east of Tuapse, where they are losing ground, especially tactically important heights. The Black Sea Fleet air arm is constantly supporting the Red Army and bombing the German front lines. After a night dive-bombing attack on a German aerodrome Russian parachutists landed on the aerodrome destroyed 13 planes and damaged 10. The Germans in desperation produced the bloodiest fighting of the war at Velikiye Luki, whence the Russians are already pressing on and also beating back the efforts of the enemy to break out westward of Rjev, where the position has became worse since the fall of Velikiye Luki. The Russians to-day continued attacks on five fronts extending over 1300 miles from Velikiye Luki to the Caucasus.

The Red Army m the middle Don area is exploiting fast-moving tanks, using giant caterpillars admirably suited tor movement over the deep snow.

Two Russian forces are converging on Tsymlyanskaya, and the advance on the Kalmuk steppes continues. Russian mobile units cut off and badly mauled the German garrison retreating after the fall of Elista. Correspondents at Moscow say that General Sherer’s warning that Germans who ceased to light at Velikiye Luki would be shot and their families penalised was made at Hitler’s order, which also applies to von Hoth’s troops. _______