DRIVE ON SALSK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 January 1943, Page 3

DRIVE ON SALSK

CAPTURE OF KUBERLE SOME DETAILS OF RUSSIAN GAINS. NUMBER OF TOWNS TAKEN INTACT. (British Official. Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.35 a.m.) RUGBY, January 12. The Russian -High Command makes no further reference to Kuberle, a town on the Stalingrad-Tokhoretsk-Krasnodar railway, the capture of which they announced last night. The capture of Kuberle indicates an increasing threat to the whole German force in the Caucasus region, as it is only 50 miles north-east of Salsk and 130 miles north-east of Tikhoretsk.

Describing the operations generally, a Russian communique supplement states: “In the factory area of Stalingrad our storm detachments have destroyed enemy fortifications. In the lower Don area our troops have continued their offensive. The enemy, in attempts to stem our advance, are launching coun-ter-attacks by large forces of tanks and infantry. In one sector the enemy concentrated 40 tanks and launched several counter-attacks, all of which were beaten off. Seventeen enemy tanks were destroyed ,and 300 Germans were killed. On the central front the enemy south-west of Velikiye Luki, despite the huge losses already sustained here, continues to throw large forces into the battle. Our troops are repelling enemy attacks and inflicting heavy losses. In the northern Caucasus our troops are continuing their offensive. When our troops occupied Mineralnievodi, two trains, carrying troops and supplies, were waiting at the station. The troops were annihilated and the supplies captured. On another sector of the same front, our troops, having broken the enemy’s defence line, advanced twelve miles.”

A Moscow message states: “Through the speed of the Soviet advance, Pyatigorsk and other towns were taken intact, the Germans not having time to damage buildings.” The “Red Star” says the graves of those who fell in last summer’s German advance are now littered with the corpses of, those killed in the winter retreat. The enemy is suffering losses, the replacement of which will be increasingly difficult, and which are undermining the German war machine. According to a further Moscow message, Soviet Alpine troops have replanted the Soviet flag on the summits of Mount Mashuk and Mount Beshtau. These are, respectively, 25 miles northeast and 25 miles north-west of Pyatigorsk.