MIGHTY TANK FORCE

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 21, 20 October 1943, Page 5

MIGHTY TANK FORCE

Released By Stalin Inside Dnieper Bend (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, October IS. Gigantic masses of Soviet troops have poured into tiie western Ukraine after the sudden 1000-guu blast which converted their bridgehead below Kremenchug into a breakthrough of the German front, says a Moscow message. The Soviet High Command has unleashed mighty armoured forces which have beeu held in reserve throughout the recent defensive battles on the west bank of the Dnieper. The Russians have advanced about. 20 miles south of the river and 30 miles south-east of Kremenchug itself. This has brought them only 12 miles from the railway running east to Dnepropetrovsk, which is the only east-to-west line south of Kiev.

If Kiev falls and a gigantic encircling movement in the south follows, or if the Germans are unable to disengage on the Zaporozhe sector, they will have considerable difficulty in getting away from in- < side the Dnieper bend, as the forces they have there are very large. In th'e Russians’ new bridgehead south of Gomel, a further advance threatens not merely the Dnieper bend, but also the whole German front. Moscow radio says that in Melitopol the Soviet troops have already pushed ahead from the centre of the city and occupied the cathedral and cathedral square. The Germans' are launching i counter-attacks with tanks from the western part of the city, but all have been repelled. Melitopol has become a huge cemetery for the German army. A correspondent says that German infantrymen are nailed down in the houses and cellars of the town with Soviet troops on one side and Gestapo unite on the other ready to shoot at the first sign of retreat. They are still putting up a grim fight, but the Russians are confident that the town will fall in the near future.