FATHERLAND LINE BROKEN

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 233, 29 June 1944, Page 5

FATHERLAND LINE BROKEN

Russians Pushing For Minsk

(By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) LONDON, June 2 7.

“The whole of the German front in White Russia has collapsed,’’ said a Red Army spokesman over Moscow radio today. The next big battle will be at Minsk—and that will not be long." Orsha, one of two central fortresses of the German “Fatherland Line” was captured today. The other central fortress is Mogilev, which is almost surrounded and the fall of which is imminent. With the capture of Orsha and Mogilev the Germans will be forced to retreat through Minsk into Poland. The Russians have completely destroyed the Germans’ communications with Minsk and are now building up their strength in the Mogilev and Orsha area in order to prevent a German retreat to Minsk. Soviet spearheads are already 40 miles beyond Vitebsk.

The British United Press Moscow correspondent says that a huge encircling movement is developing around Minsk. The Russian armies driving north of Vitebsk and south of Rogachev are now sweeping toward Polotsk and Bobruisk. The Russian offensives which are successfully under way in different sectors of the White Russian front are clearly component parts of a vast well-thought-out plan to surround and wipe out the German armies amid . the forests and marshes of an inhospitable countryside, states the “Daily Telegraph’s” Moscow correspondent. There is no other explanation for the shape which the Russian offensive is taking. If successful it will undoubtedly be the biggest thing which the Russians have achieved since Stalingrad and perhaps bigger than Stalingrad itself. Red Army Objective. In the eyes of the Red Army Command, the destruction of the enemy’s manpower and material has always been more important than even the recapture of territory. Their strategy calls for a huge enveloping movement from the north and south, presumably closing in on Minsk, and their tactics are designed to break down the German forces into small, isolated groups. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent, says that four Russian armies are pushing on through the crumbling remains of the Germans’ White Russian wall and are rapidly approaching the next line where the Germans are hoping to make a stand. This line runs from Polotsk to Bobruisk via Borisov. Its lower end is based on the Beresina River, where the Germans, throughout the winter and spring, prepared their emergency defences. The liquidation of five German divisions in the Vitebsk area and the encirclement of five other divisions in the Bobruisk area is reported in a Soviet communique. It says that the Russians south-west of Vitebsk have completed the liquidation of four infantry and one airborne divisions. The majority of the encircled Germans resisted desperately and left more than 20,000 dead. The Russians took more than 10,000 prisoners and occupied more than 200 inhabited places in the Vitebsk area. Toward Minsk. The Red Army, developing its successful offensive in the Minsk direction, fought its way into 350 places. The Russians pursuing the enemy in the Mogilev direction reached the eastern bank of the Dnieper in the sector of Orsha-Mogilev and Bykhov, capturing over 300 places. The Red Army crossed the Dnieper north and south of Mogilev, cut the railway from. Orsha to Mogilev, and began to engage the enemy in the streets of Mogilev. The Russians in the Bobruisk direction, by flanking .blows from the east and south, completed the encirclement of five German infantry divisions in Bobruisk and south-east of the town. The Russians cut the railway and highway between Bobruisk and Minsk and closed in against Bobruisk, where fighting is now in progress in the suburbs. The Russians between Lakes Ladoga and Onega fought their way forward and took an additional 30 inhabited places, including: five railway stations. _ Moscow radio says that the majority of Vitebsk’s 160,000 people have vanished, but that some inhabitants who went into hiding to escape the German press gangs and execution squads are returning from the countryside. Red Army units found the city burned out and blown up. , , The German news agency stated that the Russians attempted to storm Polotsk (which was about 20 miles behind the German lines at the beginning of the Russian offensive), but failed. Heavy fighting is in . progress tor Bobruisk, while the Russians are pressing hard toward Mogilev. The news agency admitted c.iat tne Germans had withdrawn their positions “to the edge of Mogilev.”