“LIKE HOUSE OF CARDS’

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 88, Issue 7, 10 January 1944, Page 5

“LIKE HOUSE OF CARDS’

COLLAPSE OF GERMANS Recd. 10.25 p.m. London, Jan. 9. The German front from the upper Bug River to the eastern Dnieper bend is collapsing like a house of cards, Moscow correspondents say. Tousands of German troops face a catastrophe on an unprecedented scale. The elimination of Kirovgrad opened up the sluice gates and the Red Army is streaming through the gap, making for the important rail centre of Novo Ukroinka and the Bug River. The escape gap still remaining to th 3 Germans between Krivoi Rog and Nikopol is narrowing every hour. The German news agency’s commentator von Hammer says German lines in the Dnieper bend were Withdrawn in face of the Russian offensive. Battles of unparalleled ferocity are going on. The fall of Kirovgrad, king-pin of von Mannstein's Dnieper bend line, 40 miles south-east of Smyela, marks the beginning of the end in the Dnieper bend, says Reuter’s military correspondent. The Red Army’s wide advance carries the Russians well forward against the flank of the German forces remaining in the Krivoi RogNikopol sectors. It is clear that complete withdrawal cannot long be delayed if the Germans there are to avoid encirclement. Observers in Moscow believe the Red Army is strong enough to maintain the vigour of the present campaign and begin new ones when the time is opportune.