RUSSIANS ROLL AHEAD

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 273, 18 November 1943, Page 5

RUSSIANS ROLL AHEAD

SEVERING NAZI COMMUNICATIONS GOMEL’S DESPERATE POSITION (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright; 7 p.m. London, Nov. 16. .x piassive Russian assault against the German i /.es of communication is now severing the railways a highways from White Russia to the shores of the 5 pck Sea. The Russians are leaving the Germans fewer and fc ver lines for the transfer of reserves to reinforce vital points or for withdrawals of men and material. The capture of Demichi railway station is a bitter blow io the enemy, who was using the line until three days ago for getting troops and supplies into Gomel. Red Army forces are now pouring into the gap smashed in the White Russian line by the break-through across Gomel’s only railway to the west. Dispatches from the front to-night said that the advance is pushing on rapidly. General Vatutin’s troops are rushing north from the Kiev bulge and are now joining up with the forces which outflanked Gomel from the west, threatening to turn the entire

White Russian line. This co-ordinated drive threatens to throw the Germans back to the Pripet marshes. The Gomel garrison is reported to be in a desperate position. The available German reserves in this region have been weakened and the losses of planes and transport vehicles are aiso heavy. General Vatutin’s men further south are closing in along a 60-mile front against Korosten on the north-south railway. According to the latest reports the Russians have reached points less than 15 miles from Korosten. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says that another Russian column is driving against the railway 25 miles north of Korosten and Rechitsa, which is the only adequate road across the eastern end of the Pripet Marshes, and also is menacing the Korosten-Chernigov railway- Both lines are under gunfire and already have been crossed by cavalry patrols. The Red Army appears to be steadily gaining the upper hand against the German counter-attacks on the southern flank of the Kiev bulge. '±iie Russians have been strengthened by reinforcements brought across the Dnieper and the German losses are beginning to tell. The Russians on the Kerch Penin sula are strengthening their hold on the marshy forest-dotted terrain. The Red Navy s little ships are transporting supplies across the storm-swept Straits. The German news agency’s military commentator admits a withdrawal in the Dnieper bend. “German detach ments north-west of Zaporozhe withdrew at dusk yesterday to a shorter line after being attacked by Russian infantry divisions and a tank brigade which achieved a break-through on a narrow sector,” Captain Sertorius said. “To-night very violent fighting continues in the great battle oi the Dnieper bend, and also in the K | o-sten-Zhitomir-Fastov triangle, where the battles are fluctuating. ’ He aded that fresh Russian tank forces were thrown in at focal points in a non-stop offensive. According to Paris radio, fresh Rus tian attacks south-west of Dnepropetrovsk and north of Krivoi Rog have resulted in a number of breakthroughs.

Tlie Exchange Telegraph’s Zurich correspondent quotes Swiss reports from Berlin saying that to-day’s Press conference was the gloomiest yet held. The German spokesman explained that “the greatest of all Russian offensives” had started in the Krivoi Rog sector. He bitterly complained that the Russians, despite the miserable weather, continue largescale attacks, although it seemed incredible that they should employ tanks in such swampy country. The spokesman used the phrase “The Russians aim to force a decisive victory in 1943,” but declined to say whether this was possible.

Another report says that the Rus ’ sians are steadily drawing the net closer around the enemy fortress or Gomel, on the White Russia front, and Gomel now lies in a deep salient. The Soviet troops who cut the western railway have pusned beyond the line, and strong forces are moving up io support t.*se advanced troops, occupying many more places and strengtnenmg and enlarging the wedge that cuts off the enemy garrison from all its supply centres in the west.

A correspondent says that the Germans uscM the western railway up to the last minute, bringing supplies into the Gomel area. Now mat me line is cut, the fortress exists precariously. The Germans in Gomel still control another line which runs to the northwest, but it is closely invested on both sides and it is scarcely capable of supplying Lie enemy’s big force.

A correspondent describes the cutting of the western railway as a daring success made possible by weeks of preparation and hard fighting in difficult conditions. The Germans south of the line had dug themselves in among heights and forests. Tae Russians had to go forward step by step, systematically destroying every defence point and breaking down one fortification after -another. For a long time they made little apparent progress, but the Germans were becoming weaker, and their communications were not good. Eventually the Russians threw tanks and infantry into the attack, broke through the main German defence line, and cut the railway. About 150 miles south of this front across the Pripet Marshes, another Soviet army is rapidly closing in on the important rail centre of Korosten. The Red Army is making a big encircling movement around the town and threatens to cut all the enemy communications north of it. In the Kerch Peninsula the Russians are continuing to expand their bridgeheads on each side of the town of Keren. The Germans are fighting hard to hold the town, and a correspondent says the Soviet forces here are faced with one of the toughest propositions of the war. The weather is now very bad in Lie Kerch Straits, and the Russian supply ships are having a very rough passage. Aircraft of the Red Air Force have been dropping supplies to the bridgehead troops. The latest Moscow communique reports more Russian progress west of Gomel and in the Korosten area. It says the Red Army nas captured a railway station 16 miles west of Rechitsa and about twice the distance west of Gomel itself. This means that Soviet forces now hold a stretch of eight miles of this vital supply line from Gomel to all the enemy centres in the west. At the same time, the Russians have renewed their attacks on Gomel from the north. Red Army men to-day took

several enemy strongpoints by storm era the west bank of the river which runs just above Gomel.

Our allies have also increased their threat to Korosten. Soviet forces operating in this area to-day captured more than 60 places, including a railway station. Further south the Russians have again repulsed heavy German counter-attacks in the Zhitomir and Fastov areas.

RAILWAY POSITION

GERMAN DIFFICULTIES Recd. 6 p.m. Nov. 16. Moscow radio reports that flora the area south and south-west of Rechitsa Soviet troops are constantly enlarging the bridgehead on the right bank of the Dnieper. The Germans are offering stubborn resistance, and by desperate counter-attacks they are attempting to stem the Soviet offensive.

On one sector, during a single day, the Germans launched more than 20 counter-attacks which were repelled with huge enemy losses.

Prisoners from one tank division stated that from 10 to 15 men were left in each of the companies of their division and that the entire division had only 30 tanks left.

A prisoner from an infantry regiment stated that his battalion was transferred from Holland a month ago. His company no longer existed, although it had been reinforced twice in the past month. A German automatic rifleman, who was taken prisoner, said that his commander stressed the fact that the fate of Germany might be decided in White Russia and urged the men not to vield.

Gomel probably has not been completely deprived of railway communication by the Russian drive from the south across the main route west of Rechitsa, since another railway, running north-west of Zhlobin and Bobruisk, may still be available to them. But the simultaneous advance north and .south of the Pripet Marshes threatens the German position along the Dnieper in between.

The Russians evidently are aiming at Korosten and Ovruch. on the main line between Korosten and Mozyr. If they capture Ovruch. from which they are only 15 or 20 miles’ distant, they will deprive th° Germans between there and the Gomel area of all communications except such roads as cross that part of the Pripet Marshes. The German announcement of strong Russian attacks near Krivoi Rog may be designed to prepare the way for a withdrawal from the Dnieper bend.—B.O.W. *

REBUILDING STALINGRAD

Recd. 8.25 p.m. London. Nov. 16. About 10,000 houses, including apartment, houses, have been newly built or reconstructed in Staling! ad, says Moscow radio. Winter housing has thus been provided for 97,500 persons.