Can Germans Hold Narva ?

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 52, 4 March 1944, Page 5

Can Germans Hold Narva ?

(British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, March 2. The German front defending Esthonia and Latvia has not yet collapsed, but it now seems likely that it will. The Russians have crossed both rivers on which that front depended, north and south of Lake Peipus-Pskov. Whether the Germans can hold Narva now that the Russians are behind Narva itself is questionable. A wedge driven westwards 50 miles south of Pskov threatens to disrupt the whole of the Pskov-Nevel line. Clearly the German hold on the Baltic republics is at stake. The weather is reported to be good, and the ground hard. A I . ess Association cable says that the German strongholds in the dense woods around Vitebsk, on the White Russian front, are falling rapidly to the Russians, hourly increasing the peril to this northern king-pin of the German defensive line, says Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. Emphasising Vitebsk’s importance to the Germans, a German correspondent declares that the loss of 'Narva and Pskov would be heavy blows, but the Germans could still attempt to consolidate their front from Riga along the Dvina and from there hold their present White Russia line through Orsha and Mogilev, but if Vitebsk falls the backbone of the whole defensive structure will crack. (It was reported a few days ago, evidently erroneously, that the Germans had evacuated Vitebsk). Russian troops and guns are flowing ' steadily across the river south of Narva I to join the forces already astride the escape route. The Russian grip on the railway to Esthonia is steadily being j extended. The bridgehead across the Narva River was first established by a detachment of Russian tommy-gunners who swam the ice-cold river under heavy gunfire. Red Army ski troops and tankborne infantry 120 miles southward are closely following up the Germans retreating around Pskov. Two Russian spearheads are pressing from the opposite sides, squeezing the Germans at Pskov. The most easterly of the two southern railways has been cut and the other, to Vilna, is under fire.