RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 55, 8 March 1943, Page 5

RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE

INCREASING IN POWER Recd. 6 p.m. London, March 5. The vast Russian offensive on the central front broadens hourly, and is increasing in power. The Red Army maintains its advance on the 600-mile sweep from Lake Ilmen to Kharkov, menacing five of Hitler’s main hedge-hog positions. The Germans claim that the Donetz position has been stabilised, but Moscow dispatches suggest that the Russians at present are withholding their hand.

Some commentators express the opinion that the Russians’ progress in the centre is so imperilling the entire structure of the German defences that if vigorous thrusts continue the Germans in the Donetz Basin will be confronted with a wholesale •ei.reat or another Stalingrad disaster. The Russians may be so confident of the eventual outcome that they are letting the Germans in the Donetz stew in their own juice. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent reports that the Russians are rapidly developing ‘thrusts which threaten to shatter another German hedgehog system. They are driving south-west of Rjev towards Smolensk, which is Germany’s biggest base in Russia, and is believed to be Hitler’s own headquarters. Simultaneously, northwest of Kursk, the Russians arc fighting westward from the highway junction to Sevsk. The threat of encirclement to Orel is thus increasing. The Red Army is smashing southward from Rjev towards Gjatsk and Viazma, the last, two German hedgehogs in the salient pointing towards Moscow. The latest dispatches report that the Germans are retreating everywhere southward and southwestward of Rjev. A German force of tanks and artillery which attempted to make a stand on the Dvina River, between Rjev and Velikiye Luki, was beaten back. The Russians, pushing armour and guns across the ice at top speed, crossed the Dvina at three points. Marshal Timoshenko, despite bad weather and difficult terrain, has again struck on the neighbouring front, hitting towards Staraya Russa, which is the fifth imperilled hedgehog. These offensives promise most valuable results.

The position can be summarised as follows:

1. The Red Army is consistently thrusting back the front from Moscow.

2. The entire Volga River from its source to the estuary is now under Russian control, which will be a very important factor for the Soviet transport system in the spring and the summer. 3. A synchronised Russian push southward from Bryansk, supported by a drive north-west of Kharkov, is preparing the way for the clearance of the strategic Kharkov-Mos-cow railway which, in Russian hands, will consolidate the whole Russian advance to the south-west, menacing the German forces in the Donetz Basin.

Significantly observing that the front above Kharkov, which the Germans previously described as fluid, is to-night even more fluid, the Stockholm correspondent of The Times says that the chief Russian srreess west of Lgov is threatening Rylsk, the terminus of the branch line from Korenevo, which is endangered by the Russian capture of Sudja. After ihe capture of Sevsk the Russians are within striking distance of the Bryansk-Konotop-Kiev railway. The Russian progress in the apparently interminable Orel battle is unimnressive when measured in miles, but it already renders most precarious the road and railway linking Orel and Bryansk. It is doubtful whether a German withdrawal to escape the envelopment of Orel can long be delayed. The Russians have closed in on the important 90-mile ViazmaSmolensk railway, which is the strongest fortified railway line the Germans hold in Russia. The Germans are still striking hard in the Slavyansk sector, and a number of nlaces in the Donetz have changed hands many times.

Berlin spokesmen assert that the winter operations in the Donetz are virtually ended and that a lull is inevitable until the Germans begin their summer campaign.

Berlin radio announced that after heavy ai illery preparations the Russians launched massive attacks on both sides of Staraya Russa.