GRIM PUSH INTO RZHEV

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 284, 29 August 1942, Page 7

GRIM PUSH INTO RZHEV

Wide Extent Of Soviet

Offensive

BIG RESERVE REMAINS (By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright.) , (Received August 28, 8.30.p.m,)! LONDON, August 27. The Russians operating on the central front promise complete liquidation of the dangerous Rzhev pocket—dangerous because Rzhev is a potential springboard for a resumption of the attacks against against Kalinin and Moscow. Bitter street fighting is raging Jn Rhzev, and the Germans are putting up a desperate resistance for the city, upon whose very high strategical importance all correspondents agree. The Russians from the northern outskirts are steadily working their way toward the centre of the town, but it Is a slow, grim job. The Moscow newspapers do not hide the sanguinary character of the fighting nor the bitterness of the German resist* ance, which "Pravda” describes as "the strength of despair.” Meanwhile, other Russian forces are battering southward against the Rzhev bulge, liberating village after village, and steadily overcoming wliat the “Daily Telegraph’s” Stockholm correspondent describes as the world’s strongest and deepest system of fortifica-

tions. The Stockholm representative of •‘The Times” describes the ■ Rzhev offensive as of the greatest importance since Marshal .Timoshenko’s spring move against jiharkov. The correspondent points out that the heavy Russian pressure extends to the south beyond Kaluga to the Orel region. The British United Press correspondent in Moscow says the scope of the Russian offensive is widening both to the north and south of Rzhev, and envelopment of the powerful German garrison at Gzhatsk (35 miles northeast of Viazma) is now threatened. “Izvestia” stresses that the Russian reserves are far from being exhausted, and says that only a part of those available for the central front operations are at present being used. The Moscow correspondent of The Timos declares) that when the Russian offensive began the Germans had. 150,000 first-grade troops esconced in strong positions. First Big Break-tlirougb.

The original break-through in . the Russian offensive in the Rzhev, direction was on a front of only six miles. The Russians massed troops in a wood near Progoreloye-Gorodishche. Behind them were large tank and cavalry forces. The German positions were in a wood across a stream. The Russian offensive opened with a tremendous artillery barrage and a mass air attack. Infantry then moved forward, crept close to the exploding shells, and waited till the moment when Russian guns switched to the depth of the German defences. They then rushed the German trenches. The Russian barrage had destroyed all life in the German outer defences. The Russians fanned out south-west, west, and north-west from the point of the break-through. The Germans abandoned long-range artillery positions seven or eight miles from their forward lines when they learned of the break-through, and the Russians, by the suddenness of the attack and the intensity of the bombardment, were able to take the fortified town of Progoreloye-Gorodishche with small losses.

The Germans, doing their utmost to prevent widening of the breach, launched several counter-attacks with tanks, but within a few days the Russians had covered 30 miles. Rain enforced a pause, but the Russians then went forward with renewed vigour and drove southward, occupying Karmanovo, which is 18 miles north of Gzhatsk, advanced eastward and occupied Substov, and pressed on to Rzhev. Last winter (comments British Official! Wireloss) the Red Army half encircled Rzhev, but the Germans were determined to hold the town a.t any cost. They have reinforced the six divisions operating in that area by three in July and five more in August. They have also continued to strengthen the fortifications of adjacent towns. Rzhev is nearly TOO miles from Stalingrad, and even if the Germans wished to transfer to the central front some of their strength from the Stalingrad and Caucasian fronts it is doubtful if the communications are sufficiently good to make such an operation quickly feasible. Thus the Russian offensive in the centre is .not regarded in informed circles as likely to have any immediate effect on the situation round Stalingrad, which remains extremely serious. NEAR HEART OF RZHEV (Received August 28, 11.40 p.m.) LONDON, Xugust 28. The latest reports from Moscow claim that the Russians have stormed and captured Rzhev’s northern suburbs, and that street fighting is now in progress near the heart of the city. One Russian force iu reported to have by-passed the city; The Moscow correspondent of the

“Dally Express” says the Russians have captured Sychevka, on the railway between Rzhev and Viazpm, thus cutting a vital German supply line. The Russians yesterday threw back 10 German attacks north-west of Stalingrad and 11 in the south-west.