DRIVE ON BRYANSK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 August 1943, Page 3

DRIVE ON BRYANSK

KARACHEV CAPTURED BY RUSSIANS SOVIET TROOPS STORMING SUBURBS OF KHARKOV. AXIS RETREAT TO DNIEPER PREDICTED. LONDON, August 15. The Russians, in their drive towards Bryansk, have captured Karachev, on the railway line from Orel. 25 miles from Bryansk itself. Numerous towns and villages in the same area have also been captured. A Russian communique, announcing this advance, states that Karachev was taken after stiff street fighting. In this sector, the Russians advanced from lour to seven miles and liberated more than 70 places.

On the Kharkov front the Red Army repelled enemy counter-attacks today and kept up the offensive, occupying several places. The Russians were last reported to be storming the suburbs of Kharkov. On the Smolensk front Soviet troops advanced further today and improved their positions. On all fronts yesterday, the Russians knocked out 70 German tanks and shot down 64 enemy aircraft.

ALL SOUTH RUSSIA THREATENED BY SIX SOVIET ARMIES. THRUSTING RELENTLESSLY WESTWARD. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) LONDON. August 15. With the battle for Kharkov ending in victory for the Russians, the battle for Smolensk, the greatest German base in Russia and once Hitler’s headquarters for the assault on Moscow, is now beginning. North-west of Bryansk in the Demensk area, the Russians made their third major break-through within a month. Soviet infantry and tanks, supported by dive-bombers, are pouring through a 25-mile gap in the German defences on this new battlefront, driving a wedge midway between Bryansk and Smolensk.

Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says that as the Russian summer offensive, now covering a battlefront of 350 miles, spreads from the southern to the central front, the Soviet Supreme Command spokesman stated that the Germans are expected to fall back for a stand on the Desna and Dnieper Rivers. A German withdrawal to this line would mean the punching in of the whole central front and a direct menace to Smolensk and Kiev, the twin bastions of the last great German defence line in Russia. The Russians have made important progress against the stiffest resistance and against what promises to be the key section in this offensive—what remains of the original Orel bulge. All southern Russia east of the Dnieper is now threatened by six Russian armies moving relentlesly westward against the main German positions, says the British United Press correspondent.