GAINING GROUND

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 March 1943, Page 4

GAINING GROUND

"-IN SPITE OF STUBBORN RESISTANCE SOVIET THRUST TOWARD? SMOLENSK. DEFENDERS HOLDING THEIR OWN ON DONETZ FRONT. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.5 a.m.) RUGBY, March 17. “A continuance of the thaw, and the enemy’s stubborn resistance and counter-attacks, have failed to stem the Red Army’s advance in the direction of Smolensk,” writes a Moscow correspondent, who adds that the Red Army is advancing north-west and south, as well as west, from Viazma. Another Moscow correspondent says the Northern Donetz battle is gradually becoming one of the biggest of this war. •The dispatch continues that in the area southward of Kharkov, largescale panzer assaults are being made, supported by motorised infantry and a large number of aircraft. The Germans are also trying to hurl back the Red Army on the eastern bank of the Donetz further south, but the Russians ard holding their own and at a number of places have retained the initiative. A number of places are repeatedly changing hands in fierce fighting in the elbow of the Donetz, where the Red Army is on the defensive in some sectors and is launching counterattacks in others. London observers believe that the railway junction of Byelgorod is probably the Germans’ next main objective beyond Kharkov. Its capture would once more deprive the Russians of the use of the important lateral railway from Kursk to Kupyansk. IMPORTANT CAPTURES . MADE BY THE RUSSIANS. ENFORCED GERMAN RETREAT IN CENTRE. (Received This Day, 11.55 a.m.) LONDON. March 17. Balancing the scale in Russia against the German Donetz offensive, the Russians on the Smolensk front, under General Koniev, are relentlessly forcing the Germans to retreat westwards. The Moscow radio says that Red Army men, after an outflanking manoeuvre, crossed the River Vorona and captured the district centre of Miliatinskyzovod, on the . Rzhev-Briansk Railway, 95 miles from Briansk. The capture of Igorievskaya has strengthened General Koniev’s hold on the north-south railway from Nikitinka to Durovo. Durovo is threatened from the east by a force advancing along the Smolensk Railway. “The Times” Moscow correspondent says the capture of Igorievskaya probably trapped a considerable amount of rolling stock between there and the railhead thirteen miles to the northwards.