CONTINUOUS FIGHTING

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 64, 18 March 1943, Page 5

CONTINUOUS FIGHTING

RUSSIAN DIFFICULTIES Recd. 11 p.m. London. March 16. I Describing the difficulties of the Russian central advance, Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says General Koniev’s forces have been fighting •continuously for nearly three weeks, I marching 20 miles daily through snow j and slush. They have fought dozens of minor and many major engagements, including, the battles of Rjev, Gjatsk, Sychevka, Byelol and Viazma. Troops advancing south of Byeloi are working through miles of marshes offering no protection from the wind or enemy observation. Those from the east are fighting in dense forests three feet deep in snow, where tanks cannot operate effectively. The Germans west of Viazma dynamited a river dam, causing the waters to rise six feet above the ice, but the Russians crossed. The strain of the fighting is terrific. Huge fires light up the night sky along the whole front. The Germans are setting fire to all villages and townships, dynamiting what they cannot burn. They are also thickly mining the wake of their retreat. One Russian unit cleaned up 2000 mines in one day. Correspondents advise caution regarding the future of the central campaign. The Moscow correspondent of The Times says that, although substantial progress has been made towards Smolensk, there is much difficult and strongly-fortified country ahead. Russian newspapers have not yet mentioned Smolensk as an objective. It is realised that Smolensk is as important to the Germans as Bryansk and Kharkov, and possession of it will be stubbornly contested. The Stockholm correspondent of The Times says that assertions tha f Smolensk is immediately threatened are premature. It can. safely be said that the Russians have no chance of capturing the heavily-fortified Smolensk zone before the summer, because the Germans gained the advantage by positions in the Smolensk-Orsha-Vitebsk rail triangle, with excellent rear communications, whereas the Russians are struggling forward, mostly in a sea of mud.