MOSCOW CELEBRATES

Waikato Times, Volume 132, Issue 22153, 27 September 1943, Page 5

MOSCOW CELEBRATES

VICTORY GUNS THUNDER

LONDON, Sept. 26 Enthusiastic crowds in the streets of Moscow celebrated the victory last night. As showers oi rockets soared up into the sky a searchlight was suddenly switched on to the Lenin Museum and dozens of hats flung into the air could be seen , in the beam of light. Victory guns thundered and chimes rang out from the Kremlin.

The Russians say that in the German evacuation of Smolensk and Roslavl, the enemy did not have time to complete their plans. They left behind 60 aircraft, many guns and a large number of complete railway trains. The capture of Smolensk and Roslavl was announced by Marshal Stalin in the following Order of the Day: “Troops of the northern front, continuing their successful offensive, crossed the River Dnieper and, after stubborn fighting, took by storm the large regional centre of Smolensk. Furthermore, troops of the northern front, after two days’ fierce fighting, broke the enemy’s resistance and occupied the operational and important communication point and powerful centre of the enemy’s defence, the town of Roslavl.” Smolensk first fell to the Germans on. August 15. 1941, only 55 days after the German invasion. Its capture then cost the lives of thousands of Hitler’s best troops. The Germans constructed a vast and intricate defence system round Smolensk, which was then thought to be invulnerable. Both Marshal Timoshenko and General Ghukov led the Russian armies back to the gates of the city in December, 1941, and February, 1942. the second advance being stopped only after the Germans had launched 30 counter-attacks. Significance of Victory Commenting on the significance of the evacuations, the British United Press correspondent says the loss of Smolensk is the biggest defeat the Germans have so far suffered in Russia. Hitler made Smolensk his headquarters in the autumn of 1941, when he was planning what he believed would be the final assault against Moscow.

The Germans’ entire system of communications linking their central front is imperilled, says the correspondent. If the Germans intend to hold the Russians east of Poland, they must fight in the open country between Smolensk and Poland, where nothing has yet been reported of a specially prepared defence line. The Berlin correspondent of the Stockholm newspaper Tidningen suggests that the 700-mile Riga-Odessa line may be chosen for a stand. Two railways enter Smolensk from the west and three carry traffic eastward. These, says Reuter’s correspondent, will now be available to the Russians for the transport of supplies and reinforcements at a time when the rains are beginning to make the roads impassable. Roslavl, midway between Smolensk and Briansk, is not over-important strategically or industrially, but the Germans strongly fortified it as part of the Desna River line, where they intended to stay for the winter. The latest Soviet offensive means that the Germany army in the northern setter of the front is being cut off from the south, says the Moscow radio. The Germans, as result of their heavy defeats in the northern, central and southern regions, have lost considerably more territory than all the territory they have occupied in Western Europe.

The five Russian columns which converged on Smolensk were composed of 250,000 troops, supported by 10 brigades of tanks and masses of fighters and bombers, state reports reaching Lender..