SAVAGE BATTLES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 February 1943, Page 4

SAVAGE BATTLES

FOUGHT ON APPROACHES TO BATAISK VITAL AXIS STRONGHOLD ON DON. ) GIANT RUSSIAN TANKS RAM DEFENCES. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, Noon.) LONDON, February 7. Front line dispatches graphically describe the struggle for Bataisk, across the River Don from Rostov, where savage tank battles were partly fought out at night time in eight blazing villages which have been German strongpoints. The Germans had transformed Bataisk into a strong fortress, heavily garrisoned and defended by many mortars and guns of all calibres.

The Germans, in an effort to stave eft thrusts, unavailingly and repeatedly counter-attacked the Russian flanks. The Red Army continued to bring up powerful reinforcements. Lorry drivers for several days and nights did not leave their machines. The troops displayed supreme physical endurance and staunchness, digging trenches in frozen ground and manhandling guns up steep ice-covered heights. In the final thrust, giant Klimvoroshilov tanks formed the spearhead and rammed the German defences, smashing resistance. Russian medium tanks tore through the gaps, encountering panzers rushing up to counter-attack. Many of these were destroyed and the remainder retreated. The Germans flung in waves of bombers in tens and fifteens, attempting to hold up the attack, but Russian planes cleared the skies for the advancing troops. The Germans at dusk on Friday retreated to Bataisk, which they set on fire. Soviet tank-borne troops broke into the town. Their onrush was so violent that it confused the defenders, who believed that the Red Army was still distant. The Russians ferretted out the Germans amid the glow of burning houses, simultaneously smashing reserves coming up to assist the Germans, and by dawn on Saturday Bataisk had fallen. getting nearer TO GERMAN CENTRAL BASTIONS. RELENTLESS RED ARMY ADVANCE. (Received This Day, 12.50 p.m.) LONDON, February 7. As street fignting rages in Rostov and the Germans in the Caucasus are apparently “in the bag,” the Red Army’s relentless advance against Hitler’s central bastions forges ahead. The Russians have considerably lessened the distances separating them from Kursk, Kharkov and Byelgorod and are now 90 miles from the Dnieper, where the Germans are expected to attempt a stand. ' Moscow correspondents say the Russians have deepened the wedge in the German lines south of Kharkov. Their occupation of Barvenkovo, by a column which advanced 24 miles in 24 hours, cut a railway which the Germans, after the loss of north-south lines linking Kharkov and the Don basin, have been extensively using to support their forces in the Donetz area. FIERCE THRUSTS OCCUPATION OF IMPORTANT CENTRES. SOVIET OFFICIAL REPORT. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day,' 11.45 a.m.) ; RUGBY, February 7. A Soviet special communique states: “Soviet troops north of Kursk, by a sweeping advance, occupied the town of Fatezh, cutting the main road from Kursk to Orel. North of Byelgorod our troops, continuing their offensive, occupied the district centre and railway station of Gostischevo. In the Ukraine Societ troops occupied the town. and railway junction of Kramatorskaya, about 30 miles south-east of Izyum and about 20 miles south-east Of the Donetz River. By the capture of Gostishchevo the Russians have cut the railway from Byelgorod to Kursk. South-west of Rostov, Soviet troops, by a fierce attack, occupied the town and railway station of Azov, liquidating the last centre of enemy resistance on the left bank of the Don.” SWIFT ADVANCE TO THE RIVER DNIEPER. MAY MEAN ENCIRCLEMENT OF MANY GERMANS. (Received This Day, 12.20 p.m.) LONDON, February 7. With General Golikov’s armies forty miles from Kharkov, other columns have occupied towns and villages 45 miles south-east of Kursk. The Russians are also consolidating their gains west and south-west of Stary Oskol. The Russians in addition are threatening Byelgorod, a notable German hedgehog, from a distance of 40 miles. In view of the speed with which the Russians advanced to Barvenkovo, covering 90 miles since January 18, the British United Press Moscow correspondent suggests that if the advance to the Dnieper is continued at a similar rate, the Russians will be in a position to carry out a greater encirclement of the Germans than at Stalingrad. Meantime they have the important rail junction, 'Kosovaya, as an earlier objective. Another Moscow message says General Vatou tin’s manoeuvre to outflank the Germans in the Donetz basin has been brought appreciably nearer realisation by the enormous gains of the past two days. The capture of Barvenkovo means that the Russians have cut a third of the four railways linking Kharkov with the industrial Donetz basin. A further 30-mile advance will cut the main line through Pavlograd to the Crimea. The Russians finally closed the last overland retreat for the Germans in the Kuban area by breaking through to Yeisk. More northward advances give the Russians control of the coastline between Yeisk and the Don mouth. The Germans remaining in the Caucasus, tvhose numbers have not yet been Officially estimated, thus are only able to escape by sea to the Crimea.