RUSSIANS IN THE NORTHERN CAUCASUS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 February 1943, Page 3

RUSSIANS IN THE NORTHERN CAUCASUS

Enemy Line of Retreat Narrowing Fast GERMANS ALSO MENACED SERIOUSLY IN DONETZ BASIN PROGRESS OF SOVIET OUTFLANKING » MANOEUVRES

LONDON, February 2. The Russian forces driving' towards the Northern Caucasus are now only about 35 miles south-east of Rostov In a despatch from Moscow, Mr Paul Winterton, the London “News-Chronicle’s” correspondent, says the Russians advance along the railway from Salsk has brought them close to the railway junction of Bataisk, which is the only line still open for the German forces retreating in the Caucasus. Ihe outlook is not at all promising for the Germans. , The Russians are also advancing’ along the whole oi the 200-mile front from Voronezh to the Donetz. Soviet columns are relentlessly pressing forward towards vital German defence lines and the Russians are now manoeuvring to outflank the whole of the German positions in the Donetz Basin. The German forces in the extreme eastern end of the Donetz basin, with the disaster of Stalingrad still fresh in their minds, are m a precarious position. Outside Stalingrad the work of rounding up the remnants of the Axis forces is still going on and it cannot be long before the area is entirely cleared of the enemy.