VITAL RAILWAY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 September 1943, Page 4

VITAL RAILWAY

BETWEEN GERMAN CENTRAL & SOUTH FRONTS CUT BY RUSSIANS IN UKRAINE GOOD PROGRESS IN DONETZ AREA. SUBURBS OF STALING ENTERED. LONDON, September 7. The Russians have gained more important successes. In their drive west’of Konotop they are reported to have cut the main German railway between the central and southern fronts. In the south, the Soviet troops are now fighting in the suburbs of Stalino. MARTYRED CITY KHARKOV FIGHTING WAY BACK TO LIFE. AFTER REDEMPTION FROM NAZI BESTIALITY. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.50 a.m.) RUGBY, September 7 Kharkov is fighting its way back to life, writes a war correspondent in the city. Enemy bombers still pay nightly visits and the rumble of Soviet long-range artillery is still faintly heard. The population of a million has been reduced to 250,000, and the Mayer stated that the Nazi terror was more cruel during the second occupation than the first. During the first few days of reoccupation, S.S. men killed 400 Red Army wounded in hospitals and burned 33 to de.ath in another hospital. They shot workers and others daily in groups of 40 to 50.

Kharkov is being made the temporary capital of the Ukraine, and soldiers and civilians are cleaning the city of debris. The Russians have opened fifteen hospitals, sixteen clinics, two homes for children and five nurseries. A concert hall and five cinemas are functioning. Reconstruction is going ahead at full pressure. Directors and engineers have been appointed for all factories, and workers have begun salvaging all the equipment and material they can find undamaged. Part of the equipment evacuated by the Russians during their first retreat is being brought back. Although the Germans blasted all bridges and took away some rails, the railway between Kharkov and Kupiansk .is already working, 'and the line to Moscow, via Byelgorod, will be open in a few days. Public health is the most vital job, as the Germans destroyed the sanitation and water supply systems by destroying the power plant of the waterworks.