FLATTENING GERMAN SALIENT

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 7, 4 October 1943, Page 5

FLATTENING GERMAN SALIENT

Fighting In Mogilev Area (LONDON, October 1. The Red Army is speeding up its drive into White-Russia, and is now threatening the whole of the German line from Vitebsk to Gomel. The capture of Cherikov reveals that the Russians most have advanced 15 miles from Krichev, which they captured on Thursday. A later report of the capture of Ryanza, 30 miles east of Mogilev, shows that the Russians are flattening out the. German salient in this area and are straightening their own line. Reports from Moscow indicate nol slackening of the Russians’ systematic advances and the closing in of the Red Army round the outer defences of Orsha. A British United .Press correspondent says that Orsha is the Germans’ main air base on the central front and. also the most important rail and road junction and keypoint in the . great 200-mile defence line from Vitebsk to Gomel, barring the way to Minsk. The Russian spearhead's are • only 100 miles from Minsk itself. After capturing Krichev the Russians are 50 miles from Mogilev. The Red Army around! Gomel is only a few miles from the city, and the correspondent says the familiar tactics of the three-pronged • advance from north, east and south are likely to result in the fall of Gomel soon. The majority of the supply lines from Gomel are believed to have been already cut.

Reuter’s Moscow correspondent re* ports that the Battle of the Dnieper, over a 400-mile front, i«in full swing. Thousands of guns from a point above Kiev to below Zaporozhe have opened up a mighty artillery duel. Fierce battles are being fought at the gates of Kiev and Dnepropetrovsk, where the Germans are stoutly resisting. Berlin radio today said that the Russians west of Roslavl had launched a new outflanking manoeuvre. The hardest fluctuating fighting occurred on , both sides of the Smolensk highway. One locality changed hands three times within 24 hours, and the Germans finally; withdrew west from it. Fresh Russian Annies?

Berlin radio’s military commentator, Captain Sertorius, said the stiffening of German resistance, which had been evident in some sectors at the beginning of the week, had become more particularly in the southern sector. Tha. enemy yesterday/between Zaporozhe and Melitopol, had further increased his efforts to break through to the Dnieper ana the Crimea. Sertorius added that the Russians threw in three fresh armies,' comprising! over 15 divisions, six tank brigades, anti considerable artillery. The rains ha<T made the roads more difficult between Gomel and the Smolensk-Minsk highway,! but the slackening of the Russian at-* tacks there arose not only from the wea-e ther, but from the tough, elastic German? defence. . Admiral Boehm, commander-iu-imieC; of the German naval forces in the Gulf of Finland, sneaking over Berlin radio,' said: “The Russian Baltic Fleet is threatening the German northern flank which is based on the Gulf of Finland.' The Russian Baltic Fleet is constantly! attacking German naval forces in the; Gulf of Finland which is covering a belt of the German northern flank. “The Russians are also trying to? achieve' naval supremacy in the Gulf of; Finland and thereby prevent supplies] from reaching islands in the gulf which' are still in our hands.”