BY RUSSIANS IN DONETZ BASIN AREA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 February 1943, Page 3

BY RUSSIANS IN DONETZ BASIN AREA

Railway Centres Threatened SOVIET FORCES DRAWING CLOSER TO STALING PORT OF TAGANROG OUTFLANKED LONDON, February 21. Troops of the Red. Army are spreading- out in a wide arc over, the plains to the north, west and. south of Kharkov and are steadily drawing closer to three important rail centres— Sumy, Poltava and Dnepropetrovsk. At the northern end they are 39 miles from Sumy, in the central area they are less than 30 miles from Poltava and at the southern end they have crossed the watershed between the Don and the Dnieper and are now operating- 25 miles from Dnepropetrovsk and 30 miles from the river itself. Mr Paul Winterton, the London “News-Chronicle’s” Moscow representative, says Dnepropetrovsk will be an objective of major importance. It is not only a very important manufacturing- centre but is also the crossing for two railway lines. At present the river is still frozen but the ice is thin and treacherous and incapable of carrying heavy units. Soviet troops in the Donetz Basin have virtually cleared all the Germans out of the eastern part from Voroshilovgrad to a point near Taganrog in the south. The Russians are now converging- on Stalino the biggest city still held by the enemy in the Donetz Basin. Though the enemy is putting up a fierce resistance at some points, it is becoming daily more evident that the Germans can only get a small proportion of their vast stores away. In the south of the Donetz Basin the Russians have outflanked the port of Taganrog and have cut the only rail connection with the main German forces. Soviet troops are now very near to the town. In the Western Kuban area the Russians are 20 miles west of Krasnodar and are pressing the remnants of the German Caucasian Army back towards the sea. The Nazis are reported to be in a very bad spot here. They are throwing in strong air units in the hope of keeping open the escape gap across the Kerch Straits to the Crimea. Soviet bombers and divebombers are making, unceasing- day and night attacks on the enemy crossing points.