SWEEP TO WEST

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 200, 25 August 1943, Page 5

SWEEP TO WEST

RAPID ADVANCE MADE MORE RUSSIAN PROGRESS

| Recd. 6.45 p.m. London, Aug. 23. , hollowing t.< capture of Kharkov j the Russians a»e sweeping on west- : ward, where they are rapidly forging i ahead. Dispatches from Moscow state that lighting continues with unabatec fury. Moscow radio says the Germaau are throwing in fresh contingents, bui that the resistance, though stiff, is unavailing. One of the fiercest tank battles of the war is being fought on the wide Ukrainian plains west of Kharkov. Russian heavy tanks, in head-on thrusts, and Russian artillery are attacking the German armoured units at point-blank range on the Psiol River, which is a tributary of the Dnieper, and the only large water barrier between Kharkov and Kiev, The Russians south of Sumy already have crossed the Psiol River. Kiev is at the apex of a triangle formed hy the railways to Kursk and Kharkov. Poltava, which is already threatened by the Russians, is the only hedghog town in the triangle. Reuters Moscow correspondent says ; that the latest reports from the Smolensk and Briansk fronts indicate that the Soviet pressure has slackened, hut that soulii of Kh/kov the I fighting in the areas of Iz.vum and Voroshilovgrad, which are Lhe key | points for the recapture of the rim I Donetz industrial basin, have been i growing in intensity. The Germans i south-v. ?st of Voroshilovgrad are I lighting under strict orders to hold on at all costs, but they were forced to j yield ground in local battles. . Pravda says that one German regiment was sent into battle south-west of Voroshilovgrad four hours after its arrival and lost half its personnel within a few hours. One German prisoner said the Germans were forced to remain in their positions under the threat of shooting. The Stockholm correspondent of The Times, alter reporting the German claim that the evacuation of Kharkov shortened the defensive line, continues: “The shortening of the line is undeniable., but that the evacuation has improved the general defensive position is less obvious. The front has suddenly sprung forward | across the Valki-Merela area and now , merges with the Izyum sector. ■ “The Germans are now lighting for j the tenure of the Donetz Basin, with- ! out which occupation ol the Kuban ibridgehead and the Crimea cannot be I maintained. The position resembles i that of last March, but the Germans | then were ready to launch a mighty t counter-offensive, whereas now the | German counter-offensive already is ; spent. j “Tne prospects for the continuance jof the Russian battle for the libera- ' tion of the Ukraine are much more . favourable.' i The Times, in a leader, says that ! just as Britain demolished once and i for all the myth of the irresistible , Luftwaffe, the Russians have shatI tered the myth of the invincible German army. It would be difficult to over-estimate the obligation under which the Russians have laid the friends of freedom ail over the world. Berlin radio stated: “Kharkov is a heap of rubble and ashes.” A description of Kharkov’s last hours included a recording of the voice of a German | general commanding the destruction of everything valuable to the RusI slans. j Berlin radio admitted that the Rusi sians. attacking west of Ku’byshev, breached the German lines.