THREAT TO ROSTOV

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 December 1942, Page 4

THREAT TO ROSTOV

RUSSIANS ADVANCING ON GREAT ARC SMASHING THROUGH AXIS DEFENCES, i NO SIGN OF GERMAN RALLY. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received Thsi Day, 1.0 p.m.) LONDON, December 29. Relentlessly thrusting over a huge arc on six fronts, from north of Voroshilovgrad to south-east of Kotelnikovo, the Red armies are co-ordinatedly sweeping towards Rostov. They have almost reached the gates of Millerovo and have captured Kotelnikovo —the two key towns which Hitler counted on holding during the winter. The threat in the vicinity of both places is so acute that the Germans are rushing up reinforcements, but the Russians advance is unabated in all the main areas . There is no sign of a successful German rally south-west of Stalingrad, despite desperate attempts to disengage. An Associated Press correspondent in Moscow reports that the Russians

have captured Nagolny, three miles due south of Kotelnikovo and also Maiorsky, nine miles north-west and Karachev, 1J miles east of the same town.

An indication of the wide sweep of this encircling movement is given in a special Moscow announcement. It named newly-occupied localities southwest of Stalingrad, including Verkhnekurmoyarskaya, on the Don sixteen miles north-west of Kotelnikovo; Biriukov, on the right bank of the Don, 22 miles south-west of Potemkinsk; Krylov, 25 miles south-east of Kotelnikovo and Zavetnaya, 60 miles southeast of Kotelnikovo. A British United Press Moscow correspondent declared earlier that the Russians had cut five of the six highways leading into Kotelnikovo, which was almost encircled. With the occupation of Ternovy and Novoyaspaskova, the Russians are now only four miles north-west and south-east respectively from Millerovo.