FURTHER PROGRESS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 December 1942, Page 4

FURTHER PROGRESS

ADVANCE OF ANOTHER 20 MILES Russian Offensive HUNDRED MORE PLACES CLEARED OF ENEMY INCLUDING ELEVEN LARGE TOWNS LONDON, December 20. A further advance of 20 miles has been made in the new Russian offensive pn the Central Don front, states a Soviet communique. In today’s fighting*, more than 8,000 enemy troops were killed and over 3,000 captured. This brings the total since the offensive began to about 28,000 killed and 13,000 taken prisoner. A hundred more places have been cleared of the- Germans. The names of eleven large towns are among the places captured. It is reported that the Russians are massing for yet another new offensive south of Rzhev. Fierce fighting continues round Stalingrad. North-west of the city an enemy infantry battalion has been wiped out. In the south-west the Russians have fought off desperate German attempts to break through the Soviet defences. A special Russian communique states: On Sunday our troops in the Central Don area continued to develop their successful offensive in the same direction as before and pursued the routed enemy forces, who retreated in haste in a southwesterly direction. Our troops have advanced sixteen to nineteen miles. Thus, in five days’ offensive, they have advanced 47 to 75 miles. The booty captured between December 16 and 20 includes 89 tanks, one train with tanks, 1320 guns of various calibres, 800 mortars, 1969 machine-guns, more than ten million rounds of ammunition, more than a million Shells and mines, seventy wireless transmitters, 6320 lorries, 3600 horses, 90 tractors, and 77 stores of ammunition, war equipment and foodstuffs. 1

TWO THREATS

MIDDLE PON OFFENSIVE GERMANS IN PRECARIOUS POSITION. CRACK DIVISIONS ENDANGERED. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.10 p.m.) LONDON, December 20. The implications of the Russians’ third smashing offensive within a month—that bn the Middle Don, announced in a special communique yesterday—dominate all reports from the eastern front. The Russians on the Voronezh front, under Lieutenant Marshal Golikov, are today still sweeping westwards and south-westwards and are reported to be nearing Millerovo, on the Moscow-Rostov railway. The Middle Don offensive creates two great threats, firstly, of tffe capture of the entire 236 mile railway line between Voronezh and Millerovo, and secondly, of the envelopment of fifteen cr.ack German .divisions. The. offensive started operationally with Marshal Golikpy’s army based on Voronezh. Crossing the frozen middle reaches of the Don, storming the steep western bank and penetrating the ice- • walls which the CJermans had erected, Marshal Golikov’s* men, after four days, reached the Vbronezh-Rostov railway at Kantemirovka, cutting off the Germans from their main supply base at Rostov. Meanwhile another Russian force under General Vatoutin, racing for the same railway but on a line 60 miles further south ,roughly abreast of Millerovo, have already reached Popoyskaya. Thus Marshal Golikov, thrusting south-westwards, and General V.atoutin, pushing westwards, are sandwiching the threatened German divisions. These separate thrusts may also succeed in turning .the German positions along the Cffir River and the Kalitv.a River, which runs roughly parallel to the Chir.