UKRAINE BATTLES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 August 1941, Page 6

UKRAINE BATTLES

GERMANS CLAIM ADVANCE TO DNIEPER

RUSSIAN RETREAT SAID TO BE HAMPERED.

POSITION OBSCURE IN SOME DETAILS.

(By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright ) (Received This Day, 1.20 p.m.) LONDON, August 18. Although the Russian communiques continue merely to record a continuation of fighting along the entire battlefront, reports from Berlin indicate that the German thrust in the Ukraine is not yet slewing down. According to a German High Command spokesman, German infantry units, after moping up Krivoi-Rog, reached the Dnieper 80 miles eastward, after forced marches, and are now advancing towards the Soviet industrial city of Dnipropetrovsk. The enemy infantry are slated to have been accompanied by tank and artillery units. Germans guns are reported to be now commanding a stretch of the river, which is hindering the withdrawal of the Soviet troops. A Rome radio message claims that Soviet forces are attempting to escape in a north-easterly direction, and that Marshal Budenny is trying to break through Hungarian forces in the north, while Italians and Rumanians are attacking from the south. It seems apparent that Marshal Budenny does not intend to make a determined stand inside the Dnieper bend, but whether this is from choice or necessity is not clear. Some German reports mentioned stiff Russian rearguard fighting, supporting the view that a large, if not the chief part of Marshal Budenny’s armies has retired according to plan, rather than give the Germans a decisive battle, which is desired nearer home.