RED ARMIES LINKED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 276, 22 November 1943, Page 5

RED ARMIES LINKED

READY FOR GREAT DRIVE

Recd. 6 p.m. London, Nov. 19. The capture of Korosten will enable the Russian command to manoeuvre reserves for new important strategic operations, says the Moscow Red Star. No hint is given of what the operations might be, says Reuter’s Moscow correspondent, but it is known that the armies of General Vatutin, on the Kiev front, and General Rokossovsky, on the Gomel front, have linked up and are ready for a mighty drive to break through between the Ukraine and White Russian fronts.

A front-line dispatch to Red Star says that the Germans at Korosten had planned to counter-attack vigorously from the River Ush, but weak points in their lines were probed and a crossing of the river was forced at night time.

The captured booty has not been fully counted, but it is now possible to say that the Germans suffered huge losses in men, and were compelled to abandon large quantities of weapons at railway stations. The latest report from the Gomel front states that the Russians have recrossed the Dnieper from Ryechitsa and are driving rapidly over the 25 miles to Gomel. The forces which are moving eastward along the railway are now 15 miles from Kalinkovich.