PRESSING ON

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 February 1943, Page 4

PRESSING ON

RUSSIAN MARCH ON OREL HITLER’S SHAKY DEFENCE LINE. GERMAN TANKS BADLY MAULED. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.10 p.m.) LONDON, February 22. Although the Russians are pressing the Germans hard towards the Dnieper River, the biggest threat to Hitler's shaky defence line is at present to Orel, which buttresses the junction between the northern, and southern sectors of the front. The Germans have thrown in division after division to stave off the menace to Orel but the Russian tanks and infantry have pressed on and are now within 20 to 25 miles of Orel. Reuter's Moscow correspondent says that an important unidentified highway which the Russians have straddled runs from Syevsk to Kromio, 25 miles south of Orel. The city has now only one supply route by road open, namely to the westward, although there are railway communications to Bryansk. The Russians either hold or command the other railways. The Germans are fighting tenaciously to hold Orel and are stubbornly defending every village and township, rushing up considerable tanks, aircraft and infantry reserves, including many troops recently arrived in Russia from France. The Red Army west and south-west of Kharkov is driving deeply towards Poltava, where picked Germans have been thrown in to stem the advance. The Germans employed fresh tank reinforcements which have been badly mauled. . Numbers of them are lying destroyed behind the. Russian spearhead, which is now thirty miles from the Dnieper.