RUSSIANS MAINTAINING CONTACT

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVII, Issue 21, 27 January 1943, Page 5

RUSSIANS MAINTAINING CONTACT

THRUSTS AT ENEMY COMMUNICATIONS

B.O.W.

RUGBY, Jan. 26.

To- day's Soviet communique states that offensive actions continued in the same directions as before on the various fronts. Further Mosccw reports say that the Red Army continues its drive in the Voronej area, capturing more territory and not permitting the enemy forces to break away. The advance is apparently westwards towards Kastornoye and Kursk and south-westwards towards Byelgorcd and Kharkov. The fall of Byelayaglina, the capture of which was announced last night, represents a Russian advance of 50 miles from Salysk. The Russian communique records the sinking of an enemy destroyer in the Barents Sea. 1 Berlin admits that the strength of the Russian offensives is still increasing and the advance is gaining momentum every hour. Southwest of Voronej Soviet armies are attacking with fresh troops. It is apparent that the position of the German forces in the great bcx bounded by Rostov in the south, Voronej in the north, and Kharkov in the west is becoming increasingly difficult, while in thei Caucasus the Ruissians closed in on Kropqtkin and Tikhcrets(k. Soviet forces are only 45 miles from both these towns, which are (the last rail junctions left in Hitler's hands in the Caucasus.

IMPORT AN CE OF VORONEJ VICTORY. The latest Russian successes on the Voronej front endanger the vital line from the Kupyansk junction to Rostov, says the Mosoow correspondent of the British United Press. The Russians have captured the district centre ©f Lozo Alexandrovka, lying midway between Valuiki and Starobyelsk, only six miles from the railway and little more than 20 miles from Kupyansk, which is the last big junction town before Kharkov is reached. According to Vichy radio, snowstorms are raging south of Voronej, where bitter fighting is in progress. Reuter's Moscow correspondent says that considerable strategical significance attaches to the Russian mastery over the Voronej area and the east bank of the! Don. Voronej was the key-point through which the Germans hoped last summer to take Moscow from the distant rear. The heroic garrison has now forced the Germans to turn south. With the vital base of Voronej entirely cleared of the enemy, the Soviet command is free to develop a full-scale offensive towards Kursk. Pravda discloses that the Germans were driven from Voronej after savage street battles in a heavy snowstorm. Although the Germans must have realised that their retreat was eut off, they fought on flercely, and every street had to be taken by a separate out- flanking manoeuvre. A heavy, dark red sky now hangs over Voronej. The streets and squares are empty, and heaps of German bodies are piled on the ground. Localities captured by the Russians include the district centre and railway station of Byelayaglina, 35 miles north-east of Tikhoretsk and Kubanskoye, 33 miles south-east of Kavaskaya. Russian Arctic troops are reported to have broken through the German lines on the Petsamo front, says the Daily Mail's Stockholm correspondent. The Germans claim that the breach has already been sealed.