THREAT TO SMOLENSK

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 207, 2 September 1943, Page 5

THREAT TO SMOLENSK

FULL-SCALE RUSSIAN DRIVE GERMAN DEFENCE LINE PIERCED (By Telegraph—Pre* Association—Cop w i; Recd. 8 p.m. London, Sept. 1. The Russians have captured the important town of Yelnya, less than 50 miles south-east of Smolensk. This great German base on the eastern front, 200 miles south-west of Moscow, is now threatened by a full-scale Russian offensive. The Russian armies have broken through a strong German line on a 30-mile front, and have penetrated the German defence zone as deeply as 19 miles m places. In four days of battle they have occupied more than 100 towns and villages, the most important of them being Yelnya, which was taken on Monday, and is one of the most important strongholds on the outer defences of Smolensk. I iie first news ot‘ these latest Russian successes came last night in a special order from Marshal Stalin, and for the second night running Moscow celebrated by firing a series of salvos.

Further down the front, near Briansk, another Russian offensive is developing rapidly in the Sievsk sector. This development foil owed a break-through a few days ago on a 63-niile front, and the. advancing Russians have pushed on 38 miles and penetrated the northern I kraine. Two more big towns were taken on Monday, one being Ghukhov, 40 miles south-west of Sievsk, ami the front is rapidly merging into that •entred around Kharkov. From the Smolensk front southwards to the Sea of Azov, the Russian offensive is smashing forward in a series of thrusts co-ordinated under a vast master plan. This is becoming increasingly obvious from the succession of Orders of the Day and communiques in which Stalin announces the capture of key-points hundreds of miles apart, but correlated with the Russian objective of freeing the Ukraine. It was in the afternoon Order of the Day that Stalin announced the capture of Yelnia. Then, in a second Order of the Day. he announced that the Russians in the Sievsk area had captured Glukhov and Rylsk and broken through into the northern Ukraine. Still later in the evening an official Moscow announcement stated that the Russians had captured Dorogobuzh and Valki. The communiques show that massive blows against the strategic points along the front are timed to give the hare-pressed Germans no opportunity to move their strategic reserves or transfer forces from point to point. They also indicate that the Russians are now concentrating the strength of their air force and armoured units against the wider objective of smashing the German military power on the Eastern Front and forcing a victory’. . Phe acvances in thp Kharkov area and the official statement that the Russians are completing mopping-up in the Taganrog area complete a picture of a vast united offensive operation. utcrS military writer says: “It is now that the whole German . from is crumbling. Orel. Kharkov, and 'laganrog are merely portents that a biggcr development is in the ofting. Bryansk and Poltava are alreauy threatened. Smolensk, formerly Hitler’s headquarters and one oi the greatest prizes of all. is almost in Russian hand'*. The prospect of a G<— iit’Jii retreat along the whole line Is n<» longer remote but the real question is: Will the tiermans he able to gei behind the Dnieper in time?’’ The great Russian victory at Yelnia is doubly remarkable, continues Reuter. It nnt only represents a fremenous wedge driven through the main German defensive line covering the Nazi centre, but has been achieved when great Russian armies were carrying out immense and successful offensives elsewhere. Thp might and resources disclosed in these Generations are astonishing. The Wehrmacht, which once deemed itself invincible, is falling back and abandoning position after position even in the most strongly fortified zones. It is most remarkable that the rate of progress of the Ruslan advance seems to be accelerating almost daily. Router’s Moscow corresponding states that the battle for Taganrog cost the Germans 15.000 dead in six davs of the grimmest fighting. The first Russian troops to enter the cityfound scenes of utter desolation. Smoke from blazing buildings swept through the streets, which were strewn with abandoned German transport. The crash of mined buildings went on while the Russians cleaned up the city. A war rep'- Tier’s despatch stated: ‘‘The port is dead. Thousands of citizens were driven off to Germany. Izvestia i ays: “Gestapo mass execution squads shot thousands of citizens m Tagariog There is not a survivor among th- Jewish population. Entire sections of the town were sot on tire.'’ has again come into the Ruhsian news with the disclosure that German aitllleiy recently savagely b'lmba-thd the city. Retribution fel’ some nights later, so.' - Reuter s Moscow correspondent, when Russian bombers unloosed c deluge cl high explosives against the German positions. The Russian.a.’ain bombed the position the next nigh\ and &?.(•<• then not a single gun has been fired against Leningrad Contain Seriorius. speaking over the German radio, ssig:—“The enemy r making great efforts to break through the shortened German positions nortnwest of Taganrog. Fighting developed on a grim scale. The German Command is husbanding its forces regaidless of < uences.