AUTUMN PUSH BEGUN

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 12, 9 October 1943, Page 5

AUTUMN PUSH BEGUN

Soviet Strategic Victories 1000-MILE LINE LONDON, October 8. In an autumn push which was suddenly launched along the vast front from the Leningrad zone to the Black Sea the following first successes have been announced by Moscow: An advance of nine miles and the capture of a town some 60 miles south-east of Leningrad. A 15-mile breakthrough north of Vitebsk, cutting the Germans’ strategic north-south railway with the capture of Nevel, about 75 miles from the old Latvian border. Successful crossings of the great Dnieper River at three points above and below Kiev and near the Dnieper bend. (Dispatches state that large forces are now pouring across the river, creating a menace to the Germans’ main centres on the Dnieper—which has been one of the strongest defensive positions in the whole of the Russian campaign—and to the German army inside the Dnieper An advance in the Taman Peninsula, where the annihilation of the last enemy remnant east of the Crimea is being carried out.

The great news of the Russians’ shattering blows along 1000 miles of front comes more dramatically following Moscow’s reticence of the past few days. The defeat of the Germans on the Taman peninsula an'd the crossing of the Dnieper are very significant. The crossing of the Dnieper has been announced in terms which suggest that, the German hopes of standing on this line are now smashed. The establishment of three Russian bridgeheads across "the middle reaches of the Dnieper jeopardize the whole position south of Dnepropetrovsk. . The victory on llic Taman Peninsula, the last German foothold in the Caucasus area, opens the road to the Crimea, . Nevel, which, according to a Russian order of the day, was captured after only two-days of fighting, is a key junction on the itebsk and Velikiye Luki-Polotsk railways. The capture ot Nevel, in addition to cutting the Germans’ main north-south railway behind the front, will considerably aid the Russians in bringing up men and _ materials for a drive toward the Baltic States. Equally important is the fact that a Russian wedge has now been driven between the main mas sof the German troops on the central front and those-be-tween Velikiye Luki and Leningrad. It is recalled that the Russians just failed to reach Nevel last winter, when they captured Velikiye' Luki, the Germans succeeding in sealing off the wedge which had been driven into their positions. It is probable, says Reuter, tha. the Russians will now push on southward iin order to outflank Vitebsk. Moscow correspondents say that the latest attack has taken the Germans completely by surprise on the Revel sector, which throughout the summer remained quiet. Equipment for Winter. The British United Press correspondent in Moscow, detailing the Russian preparations for a winter war, says tne Red Army is better equipped for such warfare than ever. Tens of thousands of siedges are now cramming the railway sidings behind the front, where also millions of cottonpadded suits and thousands of bales of white, fur-lined coats, fur caps and gloves have been concentrated. lhe troops at some points are already being equipped with their winter kit. The Red Army’s fire-power and’mobility have been vastly increased, and foreign militarv observers in Moscow are confident that the Russians in the winter will produce innovations to supplement the many revealed since the start of the German invasion.