FALL OF VITEBSK

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 232, 28 June 1944, Page 5

FALL OF VITEBSK

Sweeping Soviet Advance On 200-Mile Front GERMANS’ “FATHERLAND LINE” GIVING WAY LONDON, June 26. After capturing Vitebsk, northern bastion of Germany S "Fatherland Line," the Russians are now 30 miles beyond the town to the aouth-west and north-west and have captured Obei, a station two-thirds of the way to Polotsk. > At the southern end of the front Red Army troops have captured the important railway junction of Zhlobin, another main stronghold of the “Fatherland Line. This was announced by Marshal Stalin in a second order of the day, addressed to General Rokossovsky. . j c The Russians are now within two miles of Orsha and are nva miles from Mogilev. They recaptured nearly 2000 places in White Russia today as the Germans fell back before their onslaught alt along the line.

Reuter’s Moscow correspondent, says th at the Red Armies on the central White Russian front are pressing on rapidly toward the Lithuanian border through the natural gateway formed by the gap between the Dvina and the upper Dnieper Rivers. They have already carved their way through 30 miles of dense fortifications.

The thunderous cannonade of Soviet guns can be heard 70 miles from the battle front. The German Command now faces the virtual collapse of tlie strongest positions on the eastern front.

The British United Press Moscow correspondent says that the Russian summer offensive, spreading from front to front, already covers a 200-mile stretch in White Russia in addition to 200 miles on the Finnish front. The Russian attack has been designed to smash the entire network of German defences protecting White Russia and set the stage for an advance to Poland and Berlin.

“Pravda’s” military correspondent says that Russian artillery has advanced with the forward infantry units and is smashing German fortifications. Prisoners state that the avalanche of five directed against them created a panic in which officers fled to the rear. Taken By Assault.

The capture of Vitebsk was announced tonight by Marshal Stalin in an order of the day addressed to Generals Bagramyan and Cheruyakovsky. It said: “The forces of the First Baltic Front and of the Third White Russian Front, as the result of a big enveloping movement on

the flank, encircled German groups of five divisions who -were concentrated m the Vitebsk fortified zone, and continually tightening the encircling ring today carried by assault the town of Vitebsk, an important regional centre and German stronghold.” The order of the day mentions 26 generals whose troops have distinguished themselves. A salute of 20 salvoes from 224 guns will be fired in Moscow. Vitebsk fell after two days’ fierce street fighting. It has been in German hands for almost exactly three years, and was one of the most strongly-defended German positions on the whole eastern front. The Russians launched two offensives against it last autumn and winter, and in February the Germans said they had abandoned it, but the Russians never claimed its capture. . A correspondent says that the divisions which were trapped at Vitebsk represent one more sacrifice to the three-year-old strategic conspiracy against Moscow, which the Germans never abandoned. The White Russia salient was the sole spring-board from which the Germans could conceivably launch a coun-ter-blow against the heart of Russia. Near Orsha the Russians at present are pushing deeply into one of the- Germans most important air base centres from which the Luftwaffe has ranged far and wide along the front and launched strategic raids against the Soviet hinterland. The Soviet communique, after repeating Marshal Staliu’s anouncetnent regarding the capture of Vitebsk, adds that the advance was continued west-south-west of Vitebsk, where the Russians occupied Beshinkovichi, 30 miles south-west of Vitebsk, and 700 other places. In the Orsha direction the Russians captured Dubrovno. 13 miles east of Orsha, and also (he large railway station at Talochin, 30 miles south-west of Orsha ou the railway to Minsk. They also took 400 other places, including Krestiakovo, about two miles north _ of Orsha. The Russians also cut the highway from Orsha to Borisov and the railway from Orsha to Lepel. In the Mogilev direction the Russians captured Gorki, a district centre in the Mogilev region, and also 450 other places, including Mosdok. six miles north-east of Mogilev, also four railway stations, including Blugovichi and Resta, respectively 20 afid 17 miles south-east of Mogilev. The Russians reached the Dnieper north of Mogilev. i After referring to the capture of Zhlobin, which it describes as an important strongpoint in the German defences in the Bobruisk direction, the communique adds that the Russians also occupied more than 150 other localities.