“Big Squeeze” Closing in on Germans

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 58, 11 March 1944, Page 5

“Big Squeeze” Closing in on Germans

Fourfold Threat of Great Russian Drives (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) Received Friday 11.35 p.m. LONDON, March 10. The German southern front is crashing about von Mannstein’s armies says Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. The ‘ ‘ big squeeze ’ ’ which the Germans have been trying to avoid for months has started and so far it has succeeded all along the line. The Germans after the sweeping Russian advances in the last 21 hours face a fourfold threat against Tarnopol, Proskurov, Vinnitsa and also Nikolaiev and Kherson. Two new traps are developing within the great encircling movement towards the Carpathians and pivoting on Kasatin. The most immediate threat is against the German armi-s which have clung on so long to the heavily outflanked positions in the Dnieper Bend. The Russians advancing below Krivoirog on a front of over 100 miles are astride the railway north of Nikolaiev and the Red Army has only 45 miles to go to reach Nikolaiev and snap tight the trap around Kherson and all the German troops between Nikolaiev ana the Dnieper. The Russians at Proskurov are closing in from three sides. After the latest gains they are within six miles oi the town on the west, about six miles northwest and ten miles northeast. The position is equally critical at Vinnitsa, the threat against which has developed only in the last 24 hours. The Russians have reached points a little over 20 miles northwest of the town. Simultaneously the Germans are facing encirclement threat number two as they are pushed back towards Koniev’s armies on the second Ukrainian front. To sum up, says the correspondent, the German armies in the Western Ukraine are going back. They still have a big margin before they are in real danger of being forced to retreat on the Carpathians but they are constantly being pushed and prodded in the right direction. The Germans are becoming alarmed over the threat to Lwow. They have already begun the evacuation of valuable machinery, while the usual crowds of German officials and their wives are queuing up for tickets home. The Vichy radio, quoting a German military spokesman, says the High Command has rushed reserves to the Tarnopol area to act as a protective screen for the disengagement movements the German forces rhere are now carrying out. The maintenance of the tremendous impetus of the new offensive is shown by a second Order of the Day from Marshal Stalin announcing the capture of the important enemy defence zone of Staro Konstantinov as the “result of a skilful outflanking manoeuvre coupled with a frontal attack.” The Times' Moscow correspondent before the an nouncement of the capture of Staro Konstantinov said the fall of the town would be a first-rate success for the Russians because the German forces in the neighbourhood were barring tht. advance towards Proskurov. The British United Press’s Moscow correspondent says Popov’s troops arc within seven miles of the railway running southwest of Pskov. In their drive to encircle Pskov (Northern Russia) the Red Army is within eight miles of Ostrov. The Swedish radio reported from Helsinki that the Red Air Force last night bomber Narva on the border of Esthonia for eight hours without pause. The Russians dropped thousands of incendiaries and high explosives. Narva became a single great conflagration. The centuries old castles of Hermansborg and Evangorod were destroyed The population had been evacuated before the bombardment started. A report received in Stockholm from Helsinki states that the Russians bombed Tallinn (capital of Esthonia) las* night, starting big fires. According to the Official Wireless Marshal Stalin in his Order of the Day, announcing the new offensive in the Krivoi-rog sector, said that the Russians cut the lateral railway running southsouthwest to Nikolaiev. In four days of offensive fighting the Soviet troops advanced from 20 to 38 miles and increased their break-through in width to 106 miles. The Soviet forces occupied district centres of the Nikolaiev region of Novybug and Kazanaka. Novybug is 60 miles north-east of Nikolaiev and just west of the DolinskayaNikolaiev railway, which runs from north to west across the Dnieper Bend to the north of the Bug. It is 40 miles southwest of Krivoi-rog. Kazanaka is 80 miles northeast of Nikolaiev and due east of the railway line mentioned. A Moscow communique states that the Russians are now fighting in the streets of Tarnopol. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent reports that Marshal Zhukov’s forces in the Middle Ukraine offensive now hola 45 miles of the 75 miles stretch of the Warsaw-Odessa railway between Proskurov and Tarnopol (both important junctions). He points out that Marshal Zhukov launched his Middle Ukraine offensive in defiance of textbooks and rules when mud was likely to bog down his armies completely. Blizzards and rainstorms since November have covered the battle front with a vast mudbath, but “there was no time to wait for good weather” was the word of commana from Russian Headquarters. Marshal Zhukov went ahead and was justified. German prisoners revealed that when the Middle Ukraine offensive started the German staff refused to believe the information that the Russians had penetrated their central positions and appeared on their flanks. They thought it absolutely impossible that a major attack could have been undertaken in such conditions. The Red Star says: The Germans, using transport planes to rush supplies to their tanks and motorised columns, stuck fast in the mud in the Staro Konstantinov area. The Germans are losing dozens of panzers in counterattacks. They attacked unsuccessfully in one area with 100 tanks.