NEW OFFENSIVE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 August 1943, Page 3

NEW OFFENSIVE

LAUNCHED BV RUSSIANS AGAINST SMOLENSK SALIENT DEEP PENETRATION OF GERMAN DEFENCES. IMPORTANT HEADWAY ALSO IN KHARKOV SECTOR. LONDON, August 13. Moscow tonight announces a new Russian offensive midway between Bryansk and Vyasma (east and south-east of the Smolensk salient). If is a two-pronged drive. In the northern part of the sector the Russians have advanced 12 miles on a front of over 20 miles and in the southern part they have broken through on a nine-mile front and have advanced ten miles. In three days’ fighting, the Russians have captured five large towns and five railway stations.

The Russians have also captured a place one mile north-east of Kharkov. Altogether another 30 towns and villages have been liberated on this front, where the Russians have advanced a further seven miles. The capture by'the Red Army of the town of Kotelva, 65 miles west of Kharkov, brings the spearhead of the offensive within 30 miles of Poltava. Other captures include Tarkuny, only five miles north-east of Kharkov, and Chuguev, a large town 25 miles southeast of Kharkov and just west of the bridgehead to which the Russians have clung on the right bank of the Donetz since last spring. In their other drive towards Bryansk, the Russians have taken 60 more villages.

INTENSE BOMBING OF JUNCTIONS BEHIND ENEMY LINES. GERMAN TRANSPORTS SUNK. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, August 12. The Moscow radio announced that Soviet aircraft last night bombed the railway junctions of Poltava and Krasnograd. When the planes approached Poltava for the second night in succession, a military dump was still burning. As a result of intense bombing many more fires were started, followed by' big explosions. Direct hits were scored on several military trains at Krasnograd. All the Soviet planes returned safely. In the fighting on all fronts yesterday the Russians knocked out 56 tanks and brought down 38 planes. A supplement to the communique says that the Soviet Air Force in the Black Sea sank two enemy transports totalling 9000 tons, in the Barents Sea torpedo-carrying planes sank an enemy transport and an escort vessel, and in aerial combat eight escorting enemy planes were shot down.