RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 38, 16 February 1943, Page 5

RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE

VAIN NAZI SACRIFICES AT STALINGRAD (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) Reed. 10.30 p.m. London, Feb. 14 “With the capture of Rostov and Voroshilovgrad the Red Army’s victorious offensive has reached a new stage.” says Moscow radio. “Mighty successes have' been achieved and further successes lie ahead.

“With their recapture coflapses the Hitler—Goebbels lie that the sacrifice of 330,000 soldiers at Stalingrad was militarily valuable because it checked the Red Army's rapid advance westward, giving the German High Command time to build up a new defence line. This prattling has been exploded. The Red Army already stands far to the west of Rostov and Voroshilovgrad and irresistibly continues the victorious march westward. Large portions of the Germans have a choice similar to that of the Sixth Army—surrender or destruction. These victories again demonstrated the superiority of the Russian strategy and are another nail in Hitler’s coffin.”

Moscow radio signalised the recapture of Rostov with the greatest emphasis hitherto.

German-controlled stations had just been asserting that Russian pressure In the Rostov area had relaxed and a slight Russian break-through at Voroshilovgrad had been sealed off when Me scow dramatically interrupted its own programme. The announcer said: “Attention for a special last-minute announcement.” He then thrice slowly read the special communique, after which triumphant marches were played for a quarter of an hour and the communique was thrice read again. The Stockholm correspondent of The Times says the Germans must now realise the mistake of shortening their front by withdrawing from the Caucasus via Rostov, because the remnants of von List's chivvied and mauled army weakened instead of strengthening the Donetz forces by increasing the confusion, due to the arrival of defeated troops chased I from the Don bend.

The Russians are now compressing the German bridgehead in the Caucasus into the Taman Peninsula, simultaneously directly attacking Novorossisk. The Germans presumably managed to remove a substantial part of their men to the Crimea, but information is scanty. (Recd. 10.30 p.m.) New York, Feb. 14.

The New York Times’ Washington correspondent says that strategists are of the opinion thst the fall of Rostov, whose importance even exceeds Stalingrad, will inevitably force the Nazis to fall back to the Dnieper and result in the disintegration of. the Donetz line, from where the Germans launched the 1942 offensive. Strategists point out that such a retreat w< id probably be accompanied by a withdrawal in the northern sector from Leningrad to Latvia. In addition 200,000 Nazis in the Caucasus are cut off. The valuable Caucasus oil-wells are virtually secured for the Russians, who have also recovered the railway line via Rostov to transport oil northward. Furthermore, the Germans are cut off from the Azov Sea and are therefore unable to supply their Donetz forces.