INTO THE DONETZ BASIN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 February 1943, Page 3

INTO THE DONETZ BASIN

Threat of Second Stalingrad Hanging Over Germans J NET ROUND KHARKOV DRAWING TIGHTER RUSSIANS ADVANCING ALSO ON TAGANROG LONDON, February 15. Tonight’s Russian news is still dominated by the mighty Russian drives in the Donetz Basin and by the headlong German retreat to escape a second Stalingrad. After their capture of Rostov and of Voroshilovgrad, the Soviet columns are now rolling back the Germans from the Donetz Basin on a front of 80 miles. Berlin admits that the entire area between Rostov and Voroshilovgrad has been evacuated by the Germans. A German military commentator states that the new German line is only one-third as long as the former one. Russian forces moving on from Rostov are advancing towards the German base of Taganrog on the Sea of Azov. Latest reports state that Taganrog is already being shelled by heavy guns. Soviet forces are still biting deeper and deeper into the Ukraine in an effort to cut off the Germans before they escape through the overland gap north of the Sea of Azov. At Kharkov the Russian net is drawing tighter and tighter. The German resistance is tough, particularly in the south-east, but the Russians are driving steadily on and at one point are reported to be only five miles from the city. Mr Paul Winterton, Moscow representative of the London “News-Chronicle,” says Soviet farmers and their helpers are making rapid preparations for sowing spring crops in the recovered territory. 1 A Finnish war communique states that bombs were dropped near the capital, Helsinki, and there was lively terday and last night over the Gulf of Finland.