OREL THREATENED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 February 1943, Page 3

OREL THREATENED

ANOTHER BASE IN HITLER’S WINTER LINE Russians Forging Ahead OPERATIONS CONTINUING IN HEAVY BLIZZARD FURTHER ADVANCE WESTWARD BEYOND KHARKOV LONDON, February 18. With Kursk, Rostov and Kharkov in the Soviet bag’, Stalin’s armies tonight are driving harder than ever towards Orel, yet another great base in Hitler’s vanishing winter line. The latest news of this advance comes from Mr Paul Winterton, the London “News-Chronicle’s” Moscow representative, who states that the operations are being carried out in a heavy blizzard. The Russians are forging ahead and Orel is in the greatest danger. The Germans realise that a crisis is at hand and have brought up reinforcements. Orel is the last German stronghold on the railway from Kharkov to Moscow. It is also astride the direct road leading to the capital. Its importance is shown by the strength of the German efforts to stem the Russian advance, which appears to be developing in twin thrusts, one from the south and the other from the south-east. Further south the Russians are still driving on after the capture of Kharkov and are now within 50 miles of Poltava, the main stronghold in the German rear. Though official figures have not yet been given, reports from Moscow tell of the vast amount of equipment the Germans had to leave behind them at Kharkov. The booty is so immense that it is still impossible to count it. Near Kharkov the Russians occupied a railway yard where 150 locomotives and a big quantity of rolling stock, including 14 freight trains laden with war material, had been left. There is little news about the fighting in the Donetz Basin, but it is clear that the Germans are fighting desperately to prevent their main armies from being cut off.