TRAPPED GERMANS

Waikato Times, Volume 194, Issue 22321, 12 April 1944, Page 3

TRAPPED GERMANS

AT MLLCY OF RED ARMY LONDON, April 11 German and Rumanian forces trapped in the Crimea,, which according to unofficial Moscow estimates include 11 German divisions, are completely at the mercy of the Red Army advancing from the nor\h, the Soviet Black Sea Fleet which is blockading the coast and the guerillas attacking the enemy in the rear, reports the British United Press correspondent in Moscow.

The Red Army, with the capture cf Odessa, has completed the outflanking of the sea route between Rumania and the Crimea ajjd has given back to the Soviet fleet in the Black Sea its last main base outside the Crimea. It has also opened the way for a new drive into southern Rumania.

The Moscow correspondent of the Exchange Telegraph Company states that the Russians’ main obstacle in th® new drive is the Ishun Hills, where fighting is apparently raging. However, once the hills are crossed the Red Army will reach one of Russia’s best systems of highways leading to every vital point in the Crimea. Marshal Stalin has sent a message to the President of Czecho-Slovakia, Dr. E. Benes, saying: “There is no doubt in my mind that the common struggle of our peoples against the common foe will lead withif. a short time to the restoration of the freedom and independence of the Czechoslovak Republic.”