DRIVE ON DNIEPER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 September 1943, Page 3

DRIVE ON DNIEPER

NO SION OF GERMAN STAND BETWEEN CENTRAL & SOUTHERN FRONTS. HOT PURSUIT OF RETREATING ENEMY. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) , LONDON, September 12. There is no indication yet that the Germans are able to muster forces to stop the Russians’ great break-through between the central and southern fronts and to-halt what one Moscow correspondent calls “the biggest retreat in military history.”

The Russians are over-running the German defences along a 120-mile front east of the Dnieper, and are now within 30 miles of the only railway from the Crimea.

Reuter’s Moscow correspondent, summing up the Russians’ success, says that the past week has been the. greatest of the Russian summer offensive. The Red Army in that time has captured 55 major towns and 3000 smaller towns and villages in the area have been cleared of the Germans since September 1. This equals one-third of the area of Italy.

What was problematical a fortnight ago now seems probable—the great Dnieper Bend, Kiev and Smolensk are in sight. The Germans in the southern Ukraine continue to fall back everywhere along a wide arc from Kharkov to the Sea of Azov. The Russians are pursuing them hotly and not allowing the enemy time to lay minefields. Advanced Russian units are. now 15 miles from Pavlograd. Mobile Soviet detachment's are everywhere breaking the German lines and causing complete confusion among the retreating Germans, who now have no organised defence positions before the Dnieper. The German pocket below Kharkov, which was badly pinched by the loss of Barvenkova, is rapidly caving in. The. Russians are advancing between Kharkov and Izyum, 30 miles west'of Krasnograd on the road to Poltava. GERMAN CLAIMS OPPOSITION TO RUSSIAN LANDING. FIGHTING ON BLACK SEA COAST LONDON, September 11. A German communique reports a new Russian landing in the Novorossisk area. It claims that the Germans have sunk or set on fire three gunboats, one patrol "boat and 11 landing craft and are now engaging the remnants of the landing force. German artillery began a bombardment to disrupt a large-scale Russian offensive against the Kuban bridgehead, which had been under preparation for some days. The communique says that the Germans evacuated Mariupol according to plan after destroying all militarily important installations. FURTHER PROGRESS ON ALL FIGHTING FRONTS. SOVIET ATTACKS ALONG MAIN RAILWAYS. LONDON, September 12. Today, the Red Army has again driven forward on all fighting fronts. Soviet columns fighting their way towards the railway centre of Bryansk, have reoccupied more than 40 inhabited localities. One column is now within 15 miles of the main railway to Smolensk. Other forces, pushing on from Bakhmach, have advanced from six to seven miles and are approaching the last railway junction before Kiev. Further south, the Russians have advanced another 12 miles. The Germans continue to resist strongly south-west of Kharkov. Here the Russians are still progressing and in the Lower Ukraine they also continue to advance. Russian spearheads have advanced up to 18 miles further to the west and south-west of Stalino and liberated over 50 inhabited localities. The Germans report fierce fighting on the outskirts of Novorossisk.