ADVANCE INTO POLAND

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 88, Issue 6, 8 January 1944, Page 5

ADVANCE INTO POLAND

RUSSIANS MOVE FORWARD 35 MILES Recd. 6 p.m. London, Jan. 6. The Red Army forces whicn cro.seJ I the 1939 Polish border on Tuesday have adcanced nearly 35 miles inside Poland, says one report from Moscow, but with Moscow still silent officially regarding any Red Army movements west of Olevsk and Novograd Volynsk across the border. Moscow’ correspondents dwell on General Vatutin’s concentration on disrupting the Ukrainian railway networks stretching from Rovno to Zhmerinka. The British United Press says that some of Vatutin’s columns are thrusting westwards along the railway from Berdichev to Shepetovka with a view to cutting the north-south line there, while further south the Red Army is beating the Germans back along the railway from Berdichev to the important railway junction of Vinnitsa, where the Germans are likely to make their next stand. The German forces on the arc between Vinnitsa and Shepetovka are pouring back south-westwards over dirt roads designed to bear nothing bigger than farmers* carts. Enemy resistance south of Berdichev was intense. German tommy-gunners stayed behind and held every house neai the Vinnitsa haighway in an effort to check the advance. The British United Press points out that each successive step backwards loosens the Germans’ hold on the Ukrainian railways and lessens the enemy’s ability to manoeuvre troops to meet the Russian thrusts. The Red Army, on the other hand, depends much less on railway communications. The Russians, are accustomed to using other methods of transport.