RED ARMY’S BLOWS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 February 1943, Page 3

RED ARMY’S BLOWS

BECOMING MORE POWERFUL DAILY DNEPROPETROVSK BEING ABANDONED. AS MAIN ENEMY SUPPLY BASE. (Bv Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) LONDON, February 22. The German High Command is abandoning Dnepropetrovsk as the main supply base for the southern armies, reports the “Daily Telegraph’s” correspondent in Stockholm. Trainloads of munitions and supplies are already pulling out to Kiev, which will bbe the new base for the Ukraine front. Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhe and Poltava, which were formerly buttresses of the Dnieper line, are now merely fortified points. Moscow radio says that the . Red Army in the past 24 hours continued its advances in the Orel region, forcing a river passage, overwhelming German defences, and capturing an important fortified point. The Geimans retreated in disorder, abandoning equipment and wounded. The Germans have made repeated counter-attacks with tanks but failed to recover the position. The British United Press correspondent in Moscow says that the Russians in the past seven days have recovered 500 square miles on a 170-mile front from Losovaya to Kursk, and, in addition, 1800 square miles in the Donetz Basin. “The Red Army’s blows are daily becoming more powerful,” writes General Shadenko, Vice-Commissar of Defence, in an article in the ‘Red Star.” General Shadenko quotes a secret order/which Hitler circulated on October 14 declaring: ‘The second winter in Russia finds us ready and better prepared,” and the general comments: “The Germans in five months in some places advanced 312 miles; the Red Army covered the distance within three months, and it is still progressing victoriously. “The Russians’ speedy ■ advance has been due to the increased skill of the officers and men, and the possession of more tanks and mortized units than ever before.”