SWEPT LIKE CHAFF

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 January 1943, Page 3

SWEPT LIKE CHAFF

RETREATING GERMAN FORCES TOWARDS DONETZ & BEYOND SAL RIVER. PROGRESS IN CAUCASUS. (Bv Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) LONDON, January 9. The main German forces are being swept like chaff before the wind toward the Donetz and also beyond the Sal River, says Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. Street battles preceded the capture of Simovniki, where the Germans intended to make a stand and try to arrest the Russian advance. Simovniki was heavily fortified and defended 4 by SS. battalions, many guns, tanks and anti-tank obstacles. The German guncrews were wiped out to the last man. The Russians, pushing on through dense fog and slush, are reported to be closing in on Georgievsk. The Germans everywhere are falling back, and their resistance on all important defence lines has been broken. In spite of bad weather and lack of roads, the Russians in the north-east-ern Caucasus are continuing to push rapidly north on a broad front, and have now reached a point 20 miles from Pyatigorsk, and within 34 miles of the army advancing south from the Kalmuk steppes. ’ Russian correspondents on the Caucasus front say the retreating Germans are mining everything—forest tracks, water wells, corpses, abandoned- motor-cars,-dead horses and buildings. “They would hang mines on the air if possible,” one correspondent said. Russian sappers in one sector cleared 34,000 mines in 13 days. One, under heavy fire, neutralised 700 in a day. The Stockholm newspaper “Tidnmgen’s” Berlin correspondent said yesterday that the German military spokesman was now admitting that the Russian ofensives were more dangerous than the attacks last winter. The Russians, in many sectors, had a 10 to 1 numerical superiority, he said, and also heavy superiority in war material. German picked troops were now fighting the guerillas behind their lines, but guerilla activity was increasing. The Russians were reinforcing these fighters by parachute. The Russians have created a new air force to support the present offensive. This originally was intended to combat German crack pilots flying the latest Messerschmitts. Russian veteran pilots flying the latest Tak fighters broke up the Luftwaffe’s. efforts to blockade Stalingrad’s airfields during the height of the battle for the city. Taks are equal to German planes in steep climbing capacity and manoeuvrability. These formations are now being used offensively on a broad front protecting low-flying Stormoviks and attacking Focke-Wulf reconnaissance planes.