PRESSING ON

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 February 1943, Page 3

PRESSING ON

SOVIET SOUTHERN ARMIES

ROSTOV TAKEN BY THROAT. PROGRESS IN MANY VITAL AREAS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.45 a.m.) LONDON, February 12. Advancing at the rate of a mile an hour, General Vatoutin’s tanks and infantry are driving deeper into the Ukraine and rapidly nearing the elbow of the Dneiper River, which possibly may be the next German line of defence. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says the Russian spearheads, pressing on from Losovava, are now 50 miles from Dneprepetrovsk, where the Russians destroyed the great dam before their retreat in 1941. As the Germans roll back to the Dneiper, General Yeremenko’s troops are taking Rostov by the throat. The Germans are doing their utmost to stem the advance from the south and north-west, to enable them to save all possible from the great southern base, but the only way out is by rail through the Donetz Basin, where the Russians hold the important junction of Losovava. The possession of Losovava not only opens the way for the Russians driving to the Dneiper, but threatens the German positions westwards of Rostov. It is furthermore the most deadly blow yet struck against Kharkov, on which the Red armies are closing as the Russians’ northern claw drives on from Kursk. The capture of Losovava also cuts one of the most important railways from Kharkov and the Germans’ only direct line to the Crimea. General Golikov’s advanced units, struggling in blinding snowstorms, and fighting their way towards Orel, are now within 30 miles of that bastion of the German winter line.