VAST RING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 February 1943, Page 4

VAST RING

THROWN ROUND ROSTOV BV RED ARMY

RACE BY SOVIET COLUMNS.

TO CUT LAST RAILWAY ' AVAILABLE TO AXIS. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.10 a.m.) LONDON, February 2. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent declares that the Red Army has thrown a vast ring around Rostov, cut the southern railway lines from that city into the Kuban area and towards Salsk and also cut the main north line to Moscow, at Kamenskaya, while the capture of Svatovo cuts the north-west connection and threatens the two remaining lines connecting Rostov with the rest of Russia, via Taganrog and Kharkov. It is now a race between Russian columns from the south and east to be the. first to reach Hushchovsk, where the last Ger-man-held railway from Krasnodar to Rostov joins the main line from Tikhoretsk. When this place falls, the only way of retreat for the Germans in the Caucasus will be across the Sea of Azov. The “Red Star” quotes a captured German general’s declaration that the flower of the Wehrmacht perished at Stalingrad. Many units consisted solely of officers. The bulk of those annihilated were Prussians. Thousands of corpses littered the streets, holding up military traffic. Thousands of ghost-like, frost-bitten prisoners are still emerging from cellars and dugouts, seeking to surrender. TASK ENDED ANNIHILATION OF GERMANS AT STALINGRAD. ANNOUNCEMENT IN MOSCOW. LONDON, February 2. Moscow has just announced that the last of the Germans trapped in the Stalingrad area have been wiped! out. Nine more German generals, including the commander of the last encircled group, have been captured. In the last two days 45,000 prisoners have been captured in this area, making a total of 91,000 prisoners captured since January 10. This includes 24 generals, more than. 2,500 officers and a great quantity of war material, including 750 aircraft, more than 1,500 tanks and over 7,000 guns. STIFF RESISTANCE MUCH HARD FIGHTING IN PROSPECT. (Received This Day, 12.10 p.m.) LONDON, February 2. “The Times” Moscow correspondent says that, in view of the stiffened opposition from reinforcements, the Russian capture of Svatovo, cutting the Kupiansk-Lisichansk Railway, was a notable success. The strain on the Kharkov network of railways must at present be great, because there are plenty of indications that the Germans are transferring their strength from the centre to the south, for the defence of vital regions the Russians are regaining and lateral communications, the lack of which between the Voro-nezh-Rostov and Stalingrad-Borisogly-ebsk railways has heavily taxed supply services. Now that the winter is approaching its turning point, the Russian acquisition of railways, especially the Voronezh-Kamenskaya line, is most valuable, because the spring will be more difficult for supply services. As the Russians increasingly threaten positions the Germans have held since 1941, the Wehrmacht is expected to fight more stubbornly. There is no tendency in Moscow to minimise the next tasks.

Pieuter’s Moscow correspondent, emphasising the German stubbornness,’ says the Russians always offer encircled enemy groups surrender terms, but they are usually refused. One group in a surrounded railway station endured artillery pounding for eighteen hours before hoisting the white flag. Prisoners provided an indication of the magnitude of the cannon-fodder problem now facing Hitler. One stated that many Luftwaffe pilots are commanding units of the First Infantry Division because there are insufficient planes for the Luftwaffe and insufficient officers for the infantry.