HOLE PUNCHED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 February 1943, Page 3

HOLE PUNCHED

IN HITLER’S WINTER LINE 100 MILES DEEP. IMPORTANCE OF RECENT CAPTURES. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, February 23. The Russians have completed punching a hole 100 miles deep into what was one of the most heavily defended sections of Hitler’s winter line. This offensive is north-west of Kharkov, and after some important captures announced today the Russians continue pushing forward steadily. The Red Army has captured Sumy railway junction, 85 miles north-west of Kharkov, also Akhtryka, Lebedin, nearby to the south, and Malo Arkhangelsk, south-east of Orel, it was announced in a special Moscow communique. This new advance has brought the Red armies, which are imperilling the northward German positions, as far westward as their comrades to the south, who are threatening the Dnieper line. Moscow radio declared that Hitler has switched 22 divisions from the west to the Russian front in the past 24 hours. Commentators believe that the flanking threat to Orel after the capture of Malo Arkhangelsk is even more significant. The Stockholm correspondent of “The Times” says that if the Russians get astride the only metalled road and railway to Bryansk the Orel fortress will be virtually isolated. The Germans regard, or, at least, have regarded the fortified area of Orel as one of the chief corner-stones in their defences running north from Kharkov, and its loss would threaten to roll up the central front opposite Tula, Moscow, and Kalinin. This partly explains why the Germans are most tenaciously clinging to this outpost, and why they are sending such large reinforcements to the Bryansk-Orel sector. Russian airmen are now busily bombing the Orel garrison. PROGRESS TOWARDS OREL. Steady Russian progress is recorded toward Orel, where the Germans have been' partly caught in a pincers and forced to retreat rapidly to avoid encirclement. The Moscow correspondent of “The Times” says that in spite of one of the heaviwest snowfalls for a long time in central Russia and the paucity of communications, the Red Army is developing the offensive against Orel in a manner which is causing the Germans acute anxiety. The Russians’ capture of strongly-fortified points suggests that fighting is going on in one of the great defence lines which the Germans have thrown up in wooded country. Substantial units of British Matildas and American tanks are operating in these sectors. < The Russians between Kursk and’ Kharkov are fighting far from their bases, which demands great endurance. The Germans had converted the whole railway system to the European gauge, and snowstorms are hindering the indefatigable Russian repair squads. One of the most stirring sights in the battle against the elements is seeing the entire local populace turning out with shovels to clear the roads for the Red Army. The marching men are strained

almost to the limit of their endurance; they crowd into tiny roadside houses, sleeping standing up, and wedged against each other. GERMAN CAUTION. The Moscow correspondent of “The Times” says that the Germans on the Kursk-Kharkov front have been reinforced by men who had not previously fought in Russia. The German command is carefully avoiding mixing the reinforcements with the escaped troops from the Kastoronoye disaster, which was as significant in the central section as Stalingrad was in the south. General Malinovski, leaping forward west of Rostov and by-passing Taganrog, is now driving in the direction of the Mariupol-Stalino railway, aiming at the disruption of the tenacious German resistance in the vicinity of Stalino. This movement has been made in conjunction with a new attack from Kramatorsk, which also menaces the same railway. The Russians have made progress southwest of Voroshilovgrad, but they are still apparently held by the furious German defence in the Krasnoarmeisk region, where the enemy is struggling to retain the 57mile gap. In the Kuban the Russians are now reported to be 20 miles from Novorossisk.