EXTENDING RAPIDLY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 January 1943, Page 3

EXTENDING RAPIDLY

SOVIET SOUTHERN OFFENSIVE Railway Centre of Voroshilovsk Among Latest Captures AXIS LOSSES DURING LAST TWO MONTHS INCLUDE NEARLY A MILLION DEAD OR PRISONERS LONDON, January 21. Moscow announces the capture of Voroshilovsk, an important railway centre in the Caucasus, 40 miles east of Armavir, Over hundreds cf miles of Southern Russia the Red Army is threatening more of Hitler ’s> bases and smashing more supply lines. Paul Winterton, cabling to the 8.8. C., says the Russian offensive south of Voronezh is developing more powerfully. The enemy forces which have been overrun by the swift Soviet advance are now being steadily wiped out. A large number of guns and prisoners have been taken on this front. Many train loads of supplies are falling into Russian hands. Further south three railway centres linked with the great Don centre of Rostov are threatened. North-west the Red Army is within 25 miles of Voroshilovgrad, the capital of the Don industrial region. The town’s railway communications are already cut on two sides. Two more Russian armies are moving towards Likhava, 65 miles north of Rostov, where the Stalin-grad-Dcn basin line joins the line from Voronezh. The third railway centre directly threatened is Salsk, south-east of Rostov. The Russians are less than 20 miles away from Sals,k after their capture of Proletarsk yesterday. Three Soviet columns are closing in on some of the German forces which had to abandon Proletarsk, after a battle lasting three days and nights. In the Caucasus the Russians have advanced 180 miles in 18 days through difficult country and are still pushing on rapidly. The Germans are being pushed back towards Armavir and the Russians are now within 35 miles of that centre. In the Far North the main fighting is for control of the railways running out of Leningrad. ) AXIS CASUALTIES IN RUSSIA SINCE THE RED ARMY TOOK THE OFFENSIVE TWO MONTHS AGO ARE PUT AT OVER HALF A MILLION KILLED AND OVER 400,000 TAKEN PRISONER. THESE FIGURES ARE GIVEN BY THE CHAIRMAN OF THE MOSCOW SOVIET. IN THE SAME PERIOD, THE GERMANS LOST OVER 6,000 TANKS, 12,000 GUNS AND 1,000 PLANES.