CAPTURE OF ROSTOV

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 February 1943, Page 4

CAPTURE OF ROSTOV

CROWNING TRIUMPH OF SOVIET OFFENSIVE IN CAUCASUS. SPRINGBOARD OF SUMMER OPERATIONS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, Noon.) RUGBY, February 14. The crowning triumph of the Russian counter-offensive in the Caucasus has been gained by the capture of Rostov. A special communique tonight states: “Soviet troops on the southern front, commanded by Colonel-General Malinovsky, waged several days of fierce fighting for the town of Rostov. Today, having broken the enemy’s stubborn resistance, our troops occupied the town. Soviet .units commanded by Lieutenant-General Busenenko particularly distinguished themselves. The first units which penetrated the town were commanded* by Lieutenant-Col-onel Kovalev, Lieutenant-Colonel Sivankov, Colonel Breuchov and Major Dubrovin. Soviet troops who encircled the town from the west were under the command of Colonel Shapkin and Major Khodov. “Soviet south-west front troops, commanded by General Vatutin, after fierce fighting, occupied the towns of Voroshilovgrad and Krasny-Nilim.” Rostov, the tenth city of Soviet Russia, is the largest industrial town of the Azov district of the Black Sea and the terminus of three principal rail- 1 ways. It was the springboard for last summer's Caucasus operations. It changed hands several times. The Germans attacked it in the autumn of 1941 and in November claimed its capture. They then fell back westward to Taganrog. By the end of July, 1942, the Germans had occupied the city again, after very heavy fighting. A week ago the Russians announced the • capture of Bataisk, ten miles south, and yesterday that of Novocherkask, some 25 miles north-east of the city. Voroshilovgrad lies just inside the northern sector of the Donetz Bend, 50 to 60 miles north-west of Likhaya, the capture of which was recorded yesterday. GRIP ON KHARKOV RED ARMY CLOSING IN. UNDETERRED BY BLIZZARDS. (Received This Day, 12.25 p.m.) LONDON, February 14. Kharkov is now practically hemmed in on three sides. Five powerful Red Army columns, despite blizzards, are rapidly moving on the city. The nearest Russians are on the outskirts of Kharkov, which their guns are bombarding. The German retreat lines to Poltava are being pounded by the Russians’ planes day and night. The Germans’ only other retreat by railway is to Dnepropetrovsk, via Krasnograd, but the Russians are within ten miles of that. The Germans are reported to be concen-' trating on an effort to evacuate their Kharkov garrison to Poltava. A German official military spokesman, according to a Stockholm message tonight, significantly admitted that the Russians were making concentrated attacks on Kharkov. Meanwhile the Germans are making terrific efforts to hold Kharkov. They threw in strong armoured forces after the capture of Rogan, seven miles from the city, but Russian tanks rumbled up, fought a bitter battle and hurled the enemy out, enabling the Russian infantry to push on and recapture many villages. The German position in the whole Donetz Basin has become more critical after the Russian occupation of Novocherkask, from which the Red Army, in the past 24 hours, striking swiftly, has routed the Germans from a fortified centre, capturing several townships and villages. The Germans stubbornly resisted the advance to Novocherkask, counter-at-tacking with tanks and infantry six times within a few hours, losing hundreds of men and a majority of their tanks. The Germans were then forced back into their original fortresses. They fought in streets where 900 German dead were counted after the cap- - ture of the town. The capture by the Russians of Novoshaktui and Likhnaya consolidated their grip on the network of Donetz Basin railways and gives them a springboard for a further encirclement of the Germans, who are now ent for their retreat on the railway from Stalino to Somenovka, while the Russians are still hitting hard to narrow the seventy-mile gap between Krasnoarmeysk and Kariupol. The full extent of the Russian victory at Krasnoarmeysk is now apparent. It is a focal point of the German hedgehog system. The Germans fought desperately for the town, resulting in bloody hand to hand struggles. The German News Agency asserts that the evacuation of Novorossisk has begun. The “Red Star” says the Germans are making an effort to establish an air umbrella over the Caucasus. Moscow correspondents interpret this as an attempt to assist the evacuation of the Germans across the Kerch Strait. The recapture of Rostov is the Red Army’s biggest triumph in the occupation of cities since the great offensive was 'launched on November 1 19. The Russians have thereby regained the mastery of a vital communications centre, secured their left flank for the destruction of Hitler’s southernmost army, and completed the first stage of the reconquest of the Donetz Basin. Military commentators in London say that Rostov, which last year was for the Germans the “gateway to the Caucasus," has become a gateway to the Ukraine for the Russians, who now possess a strong hinge for the envelopment which already is overshadowing the whole German front northwards from the Sea of Azov. The fall of Rostov, which ranks in triumph with the annihilation of the German Sixth Army, will most likely greatly affect the morale of the Germans, practically entrapped in the Donetz Basin. The reoccupation of Voroshilovgrad is significant because it is an important Donetz city, control of which consolidates the Russian grip on the area which was intended to be the southern buttress of the German armies.