Vast New Offensive Going Along Whole Front

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 64, 18 March 1944, Page 5

Vast New Offensive Going Along Whole Front

(By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) Received Saturday, 1 a.m. LONDON, March 17. Latest reports from the Ukrainian front state that the Russians’ advance columns have reached the Dneister on the right wing of Marshal Koniev’s Army. The Russians are planning to mount a vast new offensive along the whole eastern front, says the Berlin radio Preparations are going forward for offensives on the central and northern sectors to coincide with the battle in the south. The Vichy radio reports that the big Western Ukraine battle continues with unabated fury along the shortened front. The Russians have not only cut out the Odessa-Lwow railway but are also carrying out movements to cut off from the rear large German forces operating in this sector. The Russians further south are attempting an outflanking movement in a bid to take Nikolaiev from the south. A new centre of fighting has developed between Vinnitsa and the furthermost point the Russians have reached in the sector south of Luck and •'round Dubno. The German Overseas News Agency states that the battle for the Bug is not losing any of its bitterness. The Russians southwest of Uman have crossed the Bug at several points, but their simultaneous attempt to outflank and cut off German units was frustrated with effective support from waves of planes. The Red Star’s military correspond *mt says the capture of Vapnyarka and the cutting of the Zhmerinka-Odessa railway was the result of a deep breakthrough in the German defences iu which the Russian mobile units olayed a ■prominent part. Coordinated front,a) and flanking attacks took the Germans unawares and inflicted telling losses..