KHARKOV STORMED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 August 1943, Page 3

KHARKOV STORMED

SIGNAL VICTORY WON BY RED ARMY Lie Given to German Story of Unhindered Evacuation WHOLE OF THE UKRAINE NOW OPEN TO RUSSIAN ADVANCE J GREAT SYSTEM OF RAILWAY COMMUNICATIONS CLEARED LONDON, August 23. The guns of Moscow thundered out again today to celebrate the Russians’ capture of Kharkov. Salvo after salvo roared over Moscow in honour of the recovery of the fourth city in all Russia. News of the event was broadcast to every village m the Soviet Union. . . , M. Stalin’s Order of the Day, announcing this victory, stated that Soviet troops, after violent fighting, broke the enemy’s resistance and took Kharkov by storm. He also announced that the ten divisions which took part in the battle tor the city would be known as the Kharkov divisions. He thanked the troops and ended with the words: “Death to the German invaders!’’ ~ . This statement gives the lie to German claims their troops made an orderly and unhindered evacuation of Kharkov last night, getting away without being’ discovered or hindered by the Russians, after destroying everything of importance m Hie city. German military commentators are likewise saying tuat Kharkov was of no real importance and could have been held had the Germans wanted to hold it. Their forces, they say, have taken up a shorter line. Although the great war industries of the city were transferred to the Urals before the Germans occupied Kharkov in 1941 the city is still of immense importance as a road and railway centre. The whole of the Ukraine stretching to the Dnieper River is now open to the Red Army. , A communique from Moscow reports a marked development in the Russian offensive in the Donetz. In three days’ fighting south-west of Voroshilovgrad, the Soviet forces have advanced 20 to 23 miles and have occupied 30 places, including a town 65 miles south-west of Voroshilovgrad, on the main railway to Taganrog.