NEW OFFENSIVE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 September 1943, Page 4

NEW OFFENSIVE

OPENED BY RUSSIANS IN SMOLENSK AREA ACCORDING TO BERLIN RADIO. , HEAVY ATTACKS ALSO NEAR LENINGRAD. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.45 p.m.) LONDON, September 16. The Red Army, in addition to ether vast commitments, apparently has opened a full-scale offensive on the Smolensk front. The Berlin radio says: “The Russians, between the Moscow-Roslovl and the Mos-cow-Smolensk highways, have started an offensive, aimed at breaking through to Smolensk. The radio admitted that the Russians had pushed the Germans back in a number of places, but claimed that the Russians gained no operational successes. The enemy radio added: “An expected large-scale Russian attack was launched in the north sector yesterday and heavy fighting raged south of Lake Ladoga against the northern belt 1 of the German front, encircling Leningrad. The Russians’ heavy artillery pounded German positions on the Sinyavino Heights but the attacks were stemmed after several hours of hard fighting. The Germans simultaneously heavily shelled Leningrad. GREAT FEAT OF ARMS

STORMING OF NOVOROSSISK. SOVIET FORCES PRAISED BY STALIN. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.55 a.m.) RUGBY, September 16. Marshal Stalin’s order of the day, announcing the fall of Novorossisk, states that troops on the North Caucasus front, in co-operation with ships and units of the Black Sea Fleet, as a result of a courageous operation consisting of a blow struck by land troops and a landing from the sea, after five days of fierce fighting, during which the 73rd German Infantry Division, the Fourth and 101st German Alpine Rifle divisions, the Fourth Rumanian Alpine Rifle Division and the Fourth Command of German Marines, were smashed, today took by storm the important Black Sea port and town of Novorossisk. Last Saturday Russian commandos swept in from the Black Sea right into the harbour of Novorossisk and landed under fire from German guns. Step by step, and reinforced in the days that followed, they fought their way into the town, slowly forcing the’ Germans back. Other attacks were made from the north-east and south-east on the western side of Novorossisk Bay. Hundreds of landing barges were used and thousands of men were poured ashore during the sequence of the operations. The opinion of some correspondents is that the Germans will almost certainly be forced out of the Kuban Peninsula and back into the Crimea, thus retreading the road they took last summer in their advance into the Caucasus.

A special Soviet communique announces the capture of NovogradSeversk. This town is halfway between Bryansk and Nezhin (or Niejin) and 80 miles south-east of Gomel on the Konotop-Gomel railway. It is an important road centre.