Union of Rival Forces in Yugoslavia

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 55, 8 March 1944, Page 5

Union of Rival Forces in Yugoslavia

Received Tuesday, 7.30 p.m. LONDON, March 7. Union has been achieved between the forces of Marshal Tito and General Mikhailovitch, says the Ankara radio. The two factions have agreed to fight only the Germans. British officers are believed to have been responsible for the rapprochement. new big tank-supported Russian drive northwest of Svenigorodka, marking the end of the Red Army’s line sweeping towards the Lwow-Odessa railway. The radio said: “The German lines have been entered and fighting is in full swing. The Russians launched an attack with all their available forces. The attack was not intended merely to tie down the German forces in that area, but to effect an advance parallel with the Soviet units racing towards Tarnopol.” The German High Command communique stated that the main weight of the Russian breakthrough attacks was now centred in the Svenigorodka sector, where the Russians yesterday launched powerful attacks. The battle against the advancing Russians south of Shepetovka reached a degree of great violence. The Germans on both sectors were engaged in heavy defensive fighting. Berlin radio’s commentator, Major von Hammer, claimed that Marshal Zhukov had not achieved a decisive operational breakthrough, despite his initial successes and even deep penetration of the German positions at some points. He added that Zhukov, as far as was known, had about 35 infantry divisions at his disposal, at least eight tank corps, and a large number of motorised units. COUP-DE-GRACE ATTEMPTED Most of his tank troops consisted oi Guard divisions of the Red Army which had been rested for some weeks, which was a further indication that the enemy believed the time had come to give the coup-de-grace to the German army in the east. The immediate objectives of the new Soviet offensive were unmistakeable—the enemy sought to gain southeastern Poland, the Ukrainian province of Odessa, and also the western part of the Rumanian Carpathian mountains. In the two days’ fighting on the ±’irst Ukrainian Front 3000 Germans were taken prisoner, says to-night’s Russian communique. Troops of tho First Ukrainian Front to-day captured district centres in the Tarnopol region and in the Kamenets-Podolsk region. Our troops cut a very important communication line from Proskurov to Tarnopol. Incomplete figures show that the troops of the First Ukrainian Front on March 4 and 5 destroyed 203 tanks, 250 guns, over 600 machineguns, 2000 lorries, and 30 armoured cars. The enemy left 15,000 corpses on the battle fields. The captures included 120 tanks, 202 guns, 260 machineguns, one armoured train and 1000 lorries.