DRIVE INTO MARSHES

Waikato Times, Volume 194, Issue 22247, 17 January 1944, Page 3

DRIVE INTO MARSHES

SWIFT RUSSIAN ADVANCE GREAT WEDGE IN POLAND LONDON, Jan. 16 After capturing Mozir and Kalinovichi the Russians advanced with startling speed. They are 25 miles beyond Mozir and are sending out spearheads to the south and west to destroy German units driven into the ice-covered Pripet marshes. Favourable weather is aiding the Red Army’s advance. The marshes, which have been practically impassable for tanks, lorries and heavy guns, now offer a firm surface at many places. Hard frosts have occurred in the past 48 hours. Russian patrols combing the forests have come across many scattered groups of Germans huddled under shawls and blankets. General Vatutin’s forces have driven an enormous wedge beyond the Sarny-Stepan line, says Reuter’s correspondent. In their drive toward Kilki they are already within sight of the Horyn river, the third water barrier met since the Polish frontier was crossed. Leningrad Attack German military commentators say the Russians have opened an offensive against both flanks of the German line between Leningrad and Lake Ilmen. They also report fresh Russian attacks on the Kerch Peninsula, in the Crimea. There is no confirmation irom Moscow of either report. According to the Berlin radio, the Russians have advanced in mass south and south-west of Cherknsy, in the Dnieper bend, where the armies of Generals Vatutin and Koniev are squeezing the German salient. The Berlin radio also says there have been powerful Russian attacks in the Vitebsk area and that the Russians have penetrated into the German defence lines north-west of Neve 1. Germans Disorganised The capture of Mozir appears to have disorganised the Germaix supply system on the whole central sector, says the British official wireless. The German rout on a 200-mile stretch across the Pripet marshes from the river Eeresina to Rovno show's no sign of ending. The Russian advance continues from Kalinovichi to the north-west, from Mozir to the w'est, from Sarny in all directions, and on a* broad front toward Rovno. German sources hold out no hope of an early chocking of the Russian advance on the White Russian front. The Berlin radio stated that the Soviet offensive had by no means exhausted itself and probably would continue on a no less massive scale. The commentator von Hammer said the Germans were greatlv outnumbered in the fighting around the Pripet marshes. He admitted that the Russians had broken through Printed copies of an appeal 'from the German High Command to its troops were found in the pockets of German dead and on prisoners in the Mozir area, says Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. The apoeal read: “The enemy must be halted far away from the Fatherland. He must be halted m spite of all the break-throughs ne has made. He must be halted oy a living wall defending the German Reich.”