SUFFERED BY GERMANS IN SOUTH RUSSIA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 January 1943, Page 3

SUFFERED BY GERMANS IN SOUTH RUSSIA

Armavir Railway Junction Captured by Soviet Forces CONTINUED ENEMY RETREAT IN CAUCASUS HEAVY AXIS LOSSES SOUTH OF VORONEZH LONDON, January 24. Stalin’s armies are hammering at the Axis forces on each of the six main fighting fronts. The enemy continues to fall back in the Caucasus. Following on the capture of the important strategic railway junction of Armavir, in the Caucasus, Soviet columns are pressing on at high speed towards Krapotkin and Tikhoretsk, along the railway to Rostov. By their capture of Armavir, the Russians have effectively cut the main railway comm.unica- ; tions from Maikop, an oil centre in enemy hands. Hitler’s armies are in equally serious difficulties in the Voronezh sector and on the Donetz front,,where the Russians were last reported to be less than ten miles from Voroshilovgrad. On the Voronezh front the Red Army captured the district centre and railway station of Volokonovka. The Russians, in nine days’ operations on the Voronezh front, have routed 17 divisions, consisting of four German infantry divisions with a special group of 60 tanks and five special German infantry regiments, nine Hungarian divisions and an Italian corps consisting of four divisions. The prisoners taken up to Friday total 64,000,