KONOTOP CAPTURED

Waikato Times, Volume 132, Issue 22137, 8 September 1943, Page 5

KONOTOP CAPTURED

VITAL RAILWAY JUNCTION LONDON, Sept 7 The Russians have captured the important junction of Konotop in the Northern Ukraine. The Russians in the Donetz Basin have retaken three more important towns, says another message. One of them has been in German hands for nearly two years and is only eight miles from Stalino. Its great foundries were planned to produce 2.000,000 tens of pig-iron a month. The gieat wedge the Russians are driving between the central and southern German armies have been hammered in still further by the capture of Konotop. This is the vital rail junction in the Northern Ukraine and controls a great part of the central Russian railway system. It is one of 300 towns and villages freed by the Russians in their latest advance. The capture of Konotop is regarded as a major triumph for the Russians. It means that the German front is split in two because its capture severs all direct rail communication between the Germans in the Kharkov and Donetz areas and those on the central and northern fronts. A large-scale German withdrawal on .a leng stretch of the front must be the result.