BIG BATTLES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 February 1943, Page 4

BIG BATTLES

RAGING IN SOUTH RUSSIA EARLY FALL OF THREE NAZI BASES EXPECTED. OREL, TAGANROG & NOVOROSSISK. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.40 a.m.) LONDON, February 18. It is expected in Moscow that the last three German bases in South Russia, Orel, Taganrog and NovorossiSk, will soon fall. After the capture of Kharkov attention is being concentrated on Orel, on which the Russian forces are closing in from several directions. The Berlin radio late this evening stated that big battles were raging in the area south-east of Orel. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says the Russian thrust west from Fatej has created a new threat to the flank and rear of the Orel defenders. A battle is raging for the control of the Kursk-Orel high road, running through Fatej. Front line despatches say the Germans, in order to protect their flank, have rushed up reinforcements and fortified every vantage point. The British United Press reports that a violent battle is going on north of Kursk, where the Russians are driving north along the Kursk-Orel railway to Orel and are now about fifty miles from the town. Other forces northward of the Briansk-Orel line are almost within striking distance but the line is one of the most heavily fortified in Russia. TAGANROG CUT OFF RAILWAY TOWN CAPTURED 20 MILES AWAY. SIXTY MORE PLACES RETAKEN IN DONETZ BASIN. LONDON, February 18. A Russian communique states that Soviet forces have cut off Taganrog from the north. Soviet columns have captured a railway town about 20 miles away. In the Donetz Basin the Russians have captured another 60 places. In the north the Russians have moved nearer to Orel.