SPECTACULAR PROGRESS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 66, 20 March 1943, Page 5

SPECTACULAR PROGRESS

RUSSIAN DRIVE ON SMOLENSK NAZIS REPELLED AT KHARKOV (By Telegraph—Pre* Association—Copyright) Reed. 6.15 p.m. London, March 18. While the battle of the Donetz is swaying, attention is being concentrated on the Russian drive toward Smolensk. The force driving from Byeloi has made spectacular progress and is known to have reached points about 50 miles from the great German base and to have occupied 32 more populated places in the past 24 hours.' Two other Russian columns are closing in from the north and the east against the important junction of Durovo, on the main Viazma-Smolensk railway. One is advancing down the branch line from Nikitinka and is now only 10 miles from Durovo. The other is moving along the main railway due west of Viazma. Before these columns lies a vast belt of fortifications protecting Smolensk and also a stretch of 50 to 80 miles of forest.

A front-line dispatch via Moscow states that the Germans, though retreating, are putting up a stiff resistance, destroying houses an 1 executing peasants or driving them to the rear. The remains of a huge barn were discovered in oue village in which were found the charred bodies of 250 men and 500 women, many of whom were identified as inhabitants of neighbouring hamlets.

Big fighting is also reported from the Russians’ salient running roughly south-west from Orel to Sevsk and thence through Lgov. Sudzh, Sumy, and Lebedin. This salient forms a huge bulge into German-held territory. News from Russian sources is awaited, but the German news agency, after admitting that a large-scale Russian attack south of Orel had made local penetrations in the German lines, claimed that the attack had failed.

A German report mentions heavy fighting throughout yesterday in which large Russian tank formations were utilised. The report represents the Russian offensive as an attempt to relieve the German pressure against their front in the south—obviously the Kharkov area. The Stockholm correspondent of The Times emohasises tha‘ the three most imnortant points in the Donetz battle behind Kharkov are Byelgorod, Chuguyev. and Izyum. where the Russians hold strong bridgeheads on the right hank of the Donetz. The heaviest fighting is now in the Chuguyev sector. The Russian positions at Byelgorod and Izyum are holding firm. The weight of the German assaults in these throe sectors is becoming tremendous. both sides using more planes with a view to achieving local air superiority. It is doub ful, savs the correspondent, whether the German plan includes pressing beyond the Donetz at present, even if thev manage to eliminate the Russian bridgeheads.

Marshal Timoshenko’s battle in the Lake Ilmen area is raging as violently as ever. The Tas« news agency reports that the Russians, developing an offensive south of Lake Ilmen have reached the Staraya Russa-Rama-Fhevo highway, and adds that the Red Army continues to overwhelm stubborn resistance and is advancing and annihilating the enemy in the forests e Berlin radio declared that the Russia" are threatening the encirclement nf Starava Russa after sending strong forces, supported b” tanks, across Lake Ilmen. The Berlin spokesman* said that the Russians. aft#»r a furious artillery barrage, launched successive waves of armour and infantry toward'; Starava Russa. The spokesman added the usual claim that the Rvs'iars failed to break the main battle line.