BIG SUCCESSES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 July 1943, Page 3

BIG SUCCESSES

GAINED BY RUSSIANS IN ATTACK ON OREL SALIENT NEAR APPROACH TO VITAL RAILWAY. PENETRATION OF ENEMY DEFENCES. LONDON, July 20. The Russians have .gained another big success in their . offensive against the Orel salient. A Moscow communi-' (pie announces the capture ot Mtsensk, an important German fortress 30 miles northeast of Orel, on the main road and railway to Moscow. The Russians are drawing a great arc round the Orel salient. In the north Soviet forces occupied 30 more places today. It was known earlier that they were only seven miles from the OrelBriansk railway, along which the German garrison at Orel obtains supplies and reinforcementsEast of Orel the Russians have captured 20 more places and south of Orel the Red Army has driven forward and still further narrowed the distance between the north and south ends of the Orel salient. This distance was last reported to be only 55 miles. In the Byelgorod area the Russians today broke through the German defences and advanced six to seven miles. In the Donetz Basin heavy fighting has developed south of Iszum and southwest of Voroshilovgrad. Russian troops have crossed the northern Donetz and another river and have considerably improved their positions.

GRIP TIGHTENING ALL LOST GROUND IN SOUTH! RETAKEN. GERMANS QUICKLY SHOT THEIR BOLT. LONDON, July 20. The Russians yesterday announced the recapture of 130 localities in the Orel salient. Many of these had probably been by-passed previously in the earlier stages of the advance. In a further 24 hours of heavy fighting, the Red Army has pushed up to six miles nearer to the great German bastion. To the north, powerful Russian tank forces driving toward the Orel-Bryansk railway, have captured the town, of Lvovo, little more than 10 miles from the railway. The advance from the south has been a fine achievement. On Saturday, the Russians announced that they had regained all the territory lost in the German offensive between Kursk and Orel. They have now followed up through the German defences and taken a town less than 10 miles south of Orel. The Russians knocked out 72 German tanks on the Orel front on Sunday and destroyed nearly 100 planes. The Moscow radio commentator, Colonel Vasiliev, summing up the fortnight’s battle for the Kursk bulge, said that the battle was undoubtedly one of the biggest of the war. The Germans, who were attacking from July 5 to July 16, suffered unprecedented losses, as a result of which they were not only unable to carry through their plans, but quickly shot their bolt. They were obliged to rush reinforcements from other areas and also from Germany itself. In the fortnight’s fighting the German Army lost more than 3000 tanks, more than 2000 planes and tens of thousands of men killed or taken prisoners. “The enemy,” he added, “not only failed to realise the High Command’s plan of operations, but also has had to relinquish part of the minor territorial gains he secured in the first week of battle.”

THREE THRUSTS ALL MAKING HEADWAY. DETAILS OF RUSSIAN ADVANCES. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.20 a.m.) RUGBY July 20. It is now possible to give more precise details of the Russian offensive against the great bastion which the Germans have built round Orel during the past year and a half. North-west of Orel, the Russians, advancing on a 40-mile front between Bolkhov and the Briansk-Sukuhinichi Railway, are 34 miles from the city. A second Russian thrust, against the point of the German salient, is 19 miles east of Orel. The third attack was from the south, where the Russians have regained the ground recently lost to the Germans and are now 38 miles from Orel. North-east of Karachev, the Russians are only a dozen miles from the Briansk-Orel railway.