GERMANS AT OREL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 July 1943, Page 4

GERMANS AT OREL

LAST LINE OF RETREAT ON POINT OF BEING CUT. STRONG RUSSIAN ADVANCE. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.20 p.m.) LONDON, July 27. It was fully expected in Moscow that the Russians would cut the Germans’ last retreat route from Orel tonight, says the British United Press correspondent in Moscow. The sole remaining passage left to the Germans is the narrow dirt road from Orel, through Fatezh to Kursk, and Russian spearheads are expected to reach the road at -'a point 40 miles south-west of Orel. The correspondent adds there is another “Stalingrad” in the offing for 250,000 Germans at Orel. With the Russians consolidating a strong bridgehead along the west bank of the Oka River, which runs north-east from Orel, and with Russian forces pushing up from the south, the Red Army is hourly expected to begin an assault against Orel itself.

THRUSTS FROM SOUTH ■ ALONG RAILWAY FROM KURSK. FIGHTING ALSO IN OTHER AREAS. (Received This Day, 12.50 p.m.) LONDON, July 27. Reuter says three Russian columns are battling from the south towards Orel. The biggest Russian advance in the past 24 hours was made by a column moving up from the south along the Kursk-Orel railway. This column has advanced 11 miles and has reached Erovkina, the third-last station on the line to Orel and only 16 miles south of the city. The Germans now occupy only two more stations on this section of the line. A second Russian column from the south advanced five miles yesterday and reached Khctoetovo, 21 miles south of Orel. The third column, on the left flank, advanced 6 miles along the Kursk-Orel highway and reached Lomovets. Today’s German communique claims that the Germans have repulsed several enemy attempts to break through east, south and north of Orel. The communique adds that hard defensive battles occurred in the Kuban bridgehead, on the Mius front and south of Lake Ladoga.

BATTERING THEIR WAY EIGHT RUSSIAN ARMIES. BREAK THROUGH ADMITTED BY GERMANS. (Received This Day, 12.40 p.m.) LONDON, July 27. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says: “In pouring rain, which has converted the whole fighting area into a swamp, eight Russian armies are now closing in against Orel. They are battering their way along two highways, thiee railways and three river valleys. The fiercest fighting in the past 48 hours has been due south of Bolkhcv, where the Germans are counter-attacking in regimental strength. The Berlin radio tonight stated: — “The Russians south of Orel are hurling in vastly superior tank forces, and after stubborn resistance by a Silesian division, succeeded in pushing through the German lines.”