KUBAN COUNTRY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 January 1943, Page 3

KUBAN COUNTRY

ENTERED BY COMBINED SOVIET FORCES ADVANCE ON SALSK SPEEDED UP IMPORTANT CAPTURE CLAIMED ON CENTRAL FRONT. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, January 13. The main Russian Caucasus army has linked up with the Soviet forces which have been moving across the Kalmuk steppes and the combined force has now entered the fertile Kuban country. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says Russian troops from the north Caucasus have linked up with the Kalmuk steppes force at a point 25 miles east of Prikumsk. The Russian force between the lower Don and the River Sal is meeting with heavy resistance. It is now only 10 miles from the Soviet army, pushing west down the trans-Caucasian railway. j The Russians, speeding up their advance along the Kotelnikovo-Krasno ■ dar railway are now within big gun range of Salsk, the railway junction town and big German base, reports the British United Press Moscow correspondent. The Germans in the Salsk region are defending the head of the branch railway to Rostov and are also trying to hold the Russian thrust from the Manich valley. \ In Stalingrad, the Russians have pushed their way into the western suburbs. On the central front, the Germans last night made a reconnaissance in force west of Rzhev. They were thrown back and lost a considerable number of men.

The Tass agency claims that the Russians have captured Slogoda, 25 miles north of Smolensk, the chief German base on the central front.