FADING FAST

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 February 1943, Page 3

FADING FAST

GERMAN HOPES OF REACHING ROSTOV BIG ENEMY TRANSPORT SUNK IN BARENTS SEA. ENEMY AIR LOSSES ON NORTHERN FRONT. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, February 2. A spectacular new Soviet advance in the northern Caucasus has bitten deep into the corridor through which the Germans hoped to escape to Rostov. It has been achieved by Russian forces driving along the railway from Salsk. By last night they had reached a town which is reported to be only about 30 miles south-east of Rostov itself. This morning’s Soviet communique reports the capture of a town farther to the rear on this railway,, indicating that the Russians, following their usual tactics, by-passed the town for their rear forces to capture.

X It seems that the Germans will have i abandon all hope of getting their army to Rostov. A Moscow message says that the Russians on the Voronezh front have captured the railway station of Kshen, which is 77 miles from Voronezh on the railway to Kursk. On the southern front the Russians captured Zeryovoy and the district centre of Nikitinsky. In the north Caucasus thd Russians captured Vyselki. In Trans-' caucasia the Russians occupied Ustlabinakaya. A Russian ship sank', an 8000-ton enemy transport in the Barents Sea. The Luftwaffe is using bombers in groups of 25 in an attempt to interfere with Russian infantry activities on the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts, but is encountering tremendous anti-aircraft fire. It recently lost 120 planes in three days, and since then 28 more have been brought down.