TRAPPED GERMAN DIVISIONS FACE LAST HOURS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 88, Issue 36, 12 February 1944, Page 5

TRAPPED GERMAN DIVISIONS FACE LAST HOURS

RUSSIANS CUT KANEV POCKET ENCIRCLING MOVE ROUND KRIVOI ROG (By Telegraph— Pre* Association--Obpy right) London, Feb. 11. Reports from the Russian front all indicate that the German divisions trapped in, the Kanev pocket are facing their last hours.

Further south, Soviet forces are completing encirclement of Krivoi Rog, last main industrial centre in the Ukraine still in German hands. On the northern front the Russians sre nearing the town of Luga, lying between Lake Ilmen and Lake Peipus. Latest reports say that Soviet troops are within 10 miles of the town. Seven Russian columns are rlio-.lag in to finish off the Kanev pocket, says Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. Two of these, whieh are thrusting from the sout-h-west, and one from the north-east, are making direct for Korsun in the heart of the pocket. Three more Red Army columns are converging to cut or the south-eastern bulge of the pocket, while the seventh is moving up from Gorodischc. Compressed within an area of less than 250 miles, with a 90-mile front to defend, the Bth German Army faces its doom, says The Times Moscow correspondent. AU the trapped German divisions except two are crack veteran groups, the loss of which is likely to have important repercussions when von Mannstein has to defend the Dniester and Carpathians. Reuter points out that encirclement of the remainder of 25 German divisions routed on the Baltic front has been brought a stage rearer through the Red Army's capture of Tolmachevo, reported in to-day’s communique. The Red Army has only nine miles to go in order to close a further gigantic trap. LAST GREY DAYS. These are the last grey days for the 10 German divisions trapped west of Kanev. says the British United Press Moscow correspondent. Two Red Army groups, entrusted with cutting the German “island” in two, are now only six miles apart. Messages exchanged between the German High Command and General Stemmerman, commanding the entrapped forces, and also between Stemmerman and his battery commander, perfectly sum up the situation. The High Command told Stemmerman, "Fight to the last man; wait for tank relief from the outside.” The battery commander, in a later message to Stemmerman’s headquarters. said: “It is difficult to hold out; send reinforcements!” Stemmerman replied to the battery command: “Send reinforcements; use available men and ammunition; use ammunition only against targets you can see.” These messages, more than anything else, reveal the German Army’s plight. An official map of the Kanev trap shows that the width of the corridor separating the encircled forces from the Red Army’s front line, running south of Svenigorodka from Shpola. is. in the narrowest part, about 25 miles. Seven Russian columns are hammering the entrapped forces. Generals Vatutin’s and Koniev’s heavy guns are lined up hub to hub, and. are pumping thousands of shells into wavering German positions. General Stemmerman left nicked rearguard detachments to hold strategic points, tough German machine-gunners and tommy-gunners covering all the crossroads and heights, pouring a crossfire into the advancing Russians, hoping to trick them into believing that big forces were lurking about. These suicide squads a’re hanging on to the

■ last, hoping the German armoured divisions will break through from the I west and relieve them. The Germans | are now digging their mobile guns i into the muddy earth and preparing ‘for a last stand. TOWARDS KRIVOI ROG. After rapid night advances along the railway from Apostolovo. Russian tanks are only nine miles from the great mining centre of Krivoi Rog, the last big German base in the Dnieper bend, says the British United Press Moscow correspondent. The fall of Krivoi Rog will release massive Russian forces for new drives against the railway town of Novibug and the line of the Bug River, the last big natural defence barrier before the Odessa railway. ’ One aspect of the deterioration of the German position in Russia in the past year is the disappearance of at least 600,000 troops of Germany and her allies from that theatre of war. In the autumn of 1942 when the German armies were at the peak of their advance, they were assisted by approximately 400,000 Rumanians, 200,000 Italians, 150,000 Hungarians, 20,000 Slovaks and 20,000 Spaniards. In rather more than a year all the Italians have been liquidated or withdrawn, and the Rumanians have been reduced by the Don and Caucasian battles to about 150,000. Of the Hungarians, perhans 15,000 survived the defeat of the Don. and this remnant was recently defeated when the Russians pushed through to Rowno (Rovno). No trace remains of the Slovaks, but perhaps 5000 Spaniards still remain. The total satellite troops still taking part has thus been reduced to about 170,000. PURSUIT OF dERMAN REMNANTS. West of Nikopol and south-east of Krivoi Rog, the pursuit of the German remnants who managed to escape the disaster at Nikopol continues. Hope for the German divisions trapped in the middle Dnieper seems still to be ; diminishing. In the north it seems decreasingly likely, however, that the Germans east of Luga will be caught in the trap set for them. The shrinking pocket there has probably been reduced t,i an arc at a distance of a dozen miles or so round Luga from the north-west to east and south. Owing to the exceptionally mild winter, Lake Peipus probably has not frozen hard enough to bear the weight of the opposing armies and the Germans therefore have an excellent natural position along the somewhat precipitous river Narva. To-night’s Soviet communique says: “The Russians in the Luga sector have continued their offensive and occupied a number of inhabited places and the railway station of Tolmachevo, nine miles north of Luga on the LeningradPskov railway, also west and southwest of Novgorod they have captured several inhabited places. The Russians north of Svenigordoka and Shpola are tightening the ring around the encirc/d enemy group and have captured several places, including the railway station of Zavadovka, six miles north-west of /orodische (which the Russians captured yesterday) and six miles south-east of Korsun. The Red Army west of Apostolovo has occupied several inhabited places.”