SWARM ACROSS RIVER

Waikato Times, Volume 132, Issue 22155, 29 September 1943, Page 3

SWARM ACROSS RIVER

1000 TOWNS AND VILLAGES TAKEN ADVANCE ALONG 700-MILES FRONT FULL-SCALE ASSAULT BY CRACK RUSSIAN GUARDS LONDON, Sept. 28. In advances all along a 700-miles front north of Kremenchug today the Russians increased their hold on the Dnieper line and captured more than 1000 towns and villages. Crack Russian Guards are swarming across the river at Dnepropetrovsk and the western defences are being bombarded heavily. The full-scale assault on this city has begun. The German lines on the White Russian front are already buckling dangerously. The Russians, in battles which are raging day and night, have pressed on to within less than 30 miles of Vitebsk, 70 miles of Mogilev and 30 miles of Gomel. Five miles west of Smolensk the Russians captured the railway station of Onezdovo. Another message says the Red Army is only 15 miles from Gomel.

According to the Ankara radio, the Russians have penetrated igto White Russia at four places. The Red Army fought a fierce street battle to win the eastern suburbs of Dnepropetrovsk. Russians and Germans, were frequently locked in hand-to-hand combat. Time and again the Germans counter-attacked. Finally the Russians got the better of the contest and prevented the enemy getting a vast quantity of equipment and supplies across the river. Several miles west of Dnepropetrovsk the main railway running back to Kiev is within range of Soviet guns. In the Kiev area the Russians have captured Chernobaisk.

Russians’ Firm Grip The struggle for the Dnieper crossings is developing into an extended battle along the whole 300-mile stretch of river from Kiev to Zaporozhe, in which the Red Army is aided by mass assaults from Soviet planes. The Russians have a firm grip on the east bank of the Dnieper River on wide stretches, but the fiercest fighting is going on in some sectors for the remaining bridgeheads. The latest front-line reports state that the Red Army has established a bridgehead on the west bank between Kiev and Cherkasy, but there is no official confirmation so far. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent reports that three Russian forces have begun crossing the river opposite Dnepropetrovsk, where tne Berlin radio tonight admitted that the Russians have launched a large-scale attack. Reuter says that the assault forces of the Russian crack guard unit are swarming across the remains of two railway bridges spanning the river. The Russians are also using small islands as stepping stones for the assault, which is covered by a shuttle service of fighter planes and a heavy artillery barrage. Meanwhile at the other two key bridgeheads—opposite Kiev and at Kremenchug—the Germans have brought up fresh divisions. Reuter adds that the Germans have also increased their air support and are using a tremendous concentration of artillery, but their resistance is gradually wearing down. Kremenchug, on the east bank of the Dnieper River, is being taken inio a steadily narrowing grip. The Russians are closing in from the north-east, where they are only five miles distant also from the east and the north. Advance Into White Russia

The German News Agency reported tonight that the Russians are attempting to occupy in strength some of the Dnieper islands north of Kiev. They are aiso endeavouring to build a pontoon bridge under cover of night. Meanwhile the Red Army’s advance into White Russia, which is termed the key to Poland and the Baltic States, is assuming triumphal proportions, states

Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. “Only four days after the capture of Smolensk,” he says, “thousands of Russians, advancing on a front of over 200 miles, are well on the road to the key towns of Mohilev, Orsha, Vitebsk, three vital points in the advance towards Minsk, the capital of White Russia and the anchor of the old Minsk-Odessa line.”

At the southern end’ of the long front the German News Agency reported a fierce battle on the outskirts of a suburb of Melitopol. The news agency claimed that the Russian attacks were held in violent defensive fighting. The agercy also reported a new Russian attack on the Kuban bridgehead, where the Russians attempted to land reinforcements on the south Taman Peninsula.