FALL OF VORONEZH

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 104, 27 January 1943, Page 5

FALL OF VORONEZH

Russians Follow Up Successes

LONDON, January 26. A special Soviet communique last night stated: ‘The town of Voronezh has been completely cleared of the enemy. The number of prisoners taken has been increased by 1 1,000, and the total ot prisoners in this area is now 75,000. Russian successes in this area continue and a tank formation has encircled a big enemy force which has refused to surrender. Soviet bombers are pounding German columns streaming west toward Kursk.

Moscow radio says that on the southwest front the Soviet advance is going on and the German Josses are particularly high in sectors where they are counter-attacking. German Admission. LONDON. January 25. The east bank of the Don in the area west-south-west of Voronezh has been cleared of German troops. A. German High Command communique stated: “To shorten the front, we evacuated the Voronezh bridgehead ac cording to plan, without enemy pressure. Tlte High Command plans to shorten the whole of the Russian front and to build up a new defence line. Moscow correspondents say that the whole German left wing of the southern armies is bending under the blows of the Red Army. General Golikovs drive westward and north-westward from his new positions south-west of Voronezh are threatening Hitler’s bases at Kursk and Kharkov, and the Russians are within sight of cutting the vital Voronezh-Kursk railway. Six hundred miles to the south the Russians are within 20 miles of Kavakazkaya, the important railway junction between Armavir and Tikhoretsk. The Berlin radio military spokesman admitted that the situation in the Stalingrad area has become considerably more serious, because of bitter new assaults'against the north and west. . The enemy has broken in at a new point on the western front with strong forces, he says. "There is a rolling mass of fire of indescribable violence.” “Our Sixth Army on Stalingrad has now won immortal honour in its heroic and sacrificial struggle against great superiority,” states the German High Command communique. . “Formations ot' Rumanians are fighting shoulder to shoulder with their German comrades to the last man, and are fully sharing their glory.”

“Evening News” says that Dr. Goebbels is preparing the German home front for the loss of Stalingrad, which means either the capitulation or the complete annihilation of the German Sixth. Army. The partial admission of the plight of the trapped forces in the last few days has come as a blow which surpasses anything the German public have so far suffered. The “Borsen Zeitung” states: “Germany has suffered her first setback, and her position is as critical as England’s was during the Battle of Britain. The British took their setbacks with courage and fortitude; we must show the same power of resistance.” Other newspapers harp on the note that everything is at stake, including the existence of every German. Brussels radio described the situation at Stalingrad as “so serious that one must become resigned to the fact that the defenders cannot be helped any more. •

TRYING TO REASSURE GERMANS

Broadcaster’s Admissions (Received January 20, 9 p.m.) LONDON, January 25. Further admissions combined with attempted reassurances are made . by the German broadcaster, General Dietmar, in giving an “interim balancesheet.” He declared it was his duty to inform the Germans of the .extent of the defeat suffered in Russia. “But,” he said, “can anyone believe that the Wehrmacht, after three years of victories, will perish from one defeat! During Frederick the Great’s campaigns the Germans were far more seriously defeated than now; yet they were finally victorious. “The Russian offensive met with considerable success initially in southern Russia. The situation at Stalingrad and the Don bend was for a time the most serious, and still causes anxiety, but it is not catastrophic. This is largely due to the Stalingrad troops, who, after encirclement, have resisted for weeks, warding off heavier calamities and enabling the Germans to take counter-measures which are now becoming effective.” “Backs Against Wall.”

“Wo would render no service to the German nation by attempting to deny that the position in the Stalingrad area and the Don basin has become very serious indeed,” added Dietmar. "The battles there are of a fierceness beyond imagination. Every single soldier in this region knows what fate may be meted out to him. It is a battle with our backs against the wall, a battle in which we are cut off from all ground communication and are being attacked by a vastly superior enemy. "There is no retreat and no breaking off the siege, but only the alternatives of holding out or going down. The severe sacrifices we have made and the still greater sacrifices now being made, are not in vain. Had we abandoned Stalingrad the roads leading south and west would be laid open to the Russians and the superiority of their forces surging in these directions would have been overwhelming. Actually, the battle for Stalingrad for some time shut the gate to Rostov. One section of the Don after the other had to be abandoned, because of the weight of Russian massed attacks. “The situation in the northern Caucasus is similar. While it is not yet possible to say how -things will develop, we may be certain that the KuB» sians will not be satisfied with the ground they have already occupied.

“Aim To Confuse Germans.” Asserting that Leningrad had not been relieved General Dietmar claimed that tlie Russians aimed to confuse the Germans by drawing reserves hither and thither, but the Germans had not been lured into weakening important positions. “It is unforseeable.’ he added, how tilings will develop. The Russians will certainly not be content with territorial gains but must press on with offensives. Thus the enemy is wearing himself out in sustained operations, which will open great new strategical possibilities to the German Ugh Command. "By steadiness in a catastrophe greater Hum any we have had to bear, we must march victorious against a world of enemies.” The announcement of a further extension of tlie Russian offensive, coupled with official Berlin reports of shortening of Hie front are interpreted in London as indicating that a serious situation has arisen at the junction of Hie German central and southern armies in tlie Voronezh area. Dr. Goebbels’s entire propaganda orchestra ims been turned on full strength, bringing home to tlie Germans tlie gravity of the situation. Tlie “Daily Mail’s” correspondent on Hie German frontier says that all German newspapers are calling on the home front to keep cool, stand firm and not let tlie fighting men down. The fuel Hint this is now a definite policy is confirmed by a Berlin radio announcement that Goebbels lias recalled war reporters from the fronts and instructed them to work in future as intermediaries between tlie lighting line und tlie home front. Unprecedented Sense of Crisis. An unprecedented sense of crisis is seeu in Gernian I’ress reports. 'l'ln* Berne correspondent of the “Evening Standard'' says that the whole country may be said to have been transported'into'a state of apprehension and alarm over tlie military situation on the Russian front. Dispatches from Berlin say that not since tlie outbreak of war have the Germans been informed with eqtmllv brutal frankness that tin* fate of tlie' nation is al stake, despite tlie resistance of the German troops on the Russian front.

Deep gloom is shown in editorials, which talk freely about a serious setback. The Stockholm correspondent of the

STALIN’S MESSAGE

102 Enemy Divisions Routed (Received January 26, 10 p.m.) LONDON, January 26. M. Stalin, as supreme commander of the Red Army, has issued an order of the day conveying his congratulations to the troops in the south-western and southern Don, the north Caucasus, the Voronezh, Kalinin, Volkhov and Leningrad fronts: “After two months of offensive operations,” he said, “the Red Army has broken through the German defences on a wide front, has routed 102 enemy divisions, taken prisoner more than 200,000, advanced 250 miles and also captured 13,000 guns and much other war material.

“Our troops have achieved an important victory and the offensive continues. “I congratulate the men, commanders and political instructors on all fronts on the victory over the German Fascist invaders and their Hungarian, Rumanian and Italian allies before Stalingrad, on the Don, in. the north Caucasus, before Voronezh, in the area of Velikiye Luki and south of Lake Ladoga. I thank the commanders and the gallant troops who routed the Hitlerite armies at the approaches to Stalingrad., who raised the siege of Leningrad, liberated from the invaders the towns of Kantemirovka, Belovodsk, Morozovsky, Millerovo, Starobyelsk, Kotelnikovo, Slmovniki, Elista, Salsk, Mozdok, Nalchik, Mineralnyi Vodi, Pyatigorsk, Stavropol, Armavir, Valuiki, Rosoch, Ostrogojsk, Velikiye Luki, Shlusselburg, ‘ Voronezh, and many other towns and thousands of inhabited localities in their forward dash to rout the German invaders and expel them from the motherland.”

CAUCASIAN AVENGERS

Gestapo Beastliness Uncovered (Received January 26, 10.30 p.m.), LONDON, January 25. Thousands of Caucasian horsemen, bred in the tradition of the vendetta, are pursuing the Germans, says the “Daily Telegraph’s” Moscow correspondent. They have plenty to avenge. * Following Gestapo terrorism, Herr Himmler’s minions did their utmost to obliterate the evidence of their crimes in Stavropol and drenched their headquarters with petrol, setting fire to the building. The Russians blanketed the flames and found evidence of German beastliness in neatly-stacked piles of clothing of boys and girls, aged 12 to 14, executed as a reprisal because their fathers were guerrillas. Other heaps consisted of Cossack cloaks which ■women identified as belonging to their sons, fathers and husbands. The Gestapo cellars contained inscriptions, often written in the blood of Russians about to die after tortureTvpica 1 were these: “During the occupation of Stavropol 15,000 to 20,000 persons were annihilated. Avenge. Another nail-scratched inscription read, “Peter Boganoff, shot on January IS. Toll his wife and children.”

FIERCE FIGHTING

Capture Of Starobielsk

(British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, January 25. Giving details of the occupation of Starobielsk (about 30 miles north-east of Lisichansk), the capture of _ which was announced yesterday, a Russian report says: “Very fierce fighting toon place in tlie eastern part of the town, lhe Germans had transformed this part ot ’the town into a strongly fortified centre of resistance. Fierce street fighting took place. Our men dislodged the enemy from one house after another and one district after another.” Tlie report praises the collaboration of the Soviet artillery and infantry. Artillery batteries of one Soviet unit in 10 days’ fighting accounted for 2000 Germans’and destroyed .40 tanks, tour armoured cars, IS lorries and two planes. Moscow radio broadcast a report from a correspondent, in the area south-west of Velikiye Luki, who said the Soviet troops are wearing down the enemy forces. Fighting often develops into hand-to-hand encounters. There is great activity by Soviet tanks which are smashing gaps in the enemy’s defence line.