TERRIFIC BATTLES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 September 1943, Page 4

TERRIFIC BATTLES

RAGING ON THE EASTERN FRONT SENSATIONAL SOVIET ADVANCE ON ALL ACTIVE FRONTS. German talk of “orderly WITHDRAWALS” (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.35 p.m.) LONDON, September 17. The sensational advance of the Red Army continues on all active fronts, with great thrusts being made against Kiev and Smolensk, while the German radio continues to pour out explanations of “orderly withdrawals,” which are claimed to be part of the Germans’“strategy of space.” The Russians continue to be strictly uncommunicative regarding details of their great advances. They are clamping down on correspondents’ despatches and limiting news to communiques, but it is certain that the bloodiest fighting and tljg. greatest battles in the history of warfare are raging. The Germans, with their Desna River winter line broken, and their hold east of the Dnieper weakening, are preparing to defend their two major bases of Kiev and Smolensk, both of which are only 180 miles from the Polish border. The Red Army is advancing against both of these bases at the rate of ten miles a day. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says that while General Rokossovsky’s motorised spearheads are thrusting along the road to Kiev, the Germans are piling guns and men into the triple line which guards the approaches to Kiev on the east bank of the Dnieper. The Germans are also strengthening their defences before Smolensk to a depth of forty miles. Although the Russians have not emphasised the strength of their operations on the Smolensk front, the Germans say one of the fiercest battles of the war is raging on a broad front less than 40 miles east of Smolensk.

The Berlin radio tonight declared: “A battle is still raging between the Roslov-Moscow and the Smolensk-Mos-cow highways, where, in very bitter fighting, the German lines were withdrawn a few miles.” The Berlin radio also reported that a fierce battle is going on in the Sinyevino area. WELL AHEAD OF MAIN RUSSIAN ARMIES. COSSACKS CUTTING ENEMY COMMUNICATIONS. (Received This Day, 10.0 a.m.) LONDON,, September 17. ' The Germans are rushing up reserves to strengthen their defence line covering the key Dnieper crossings at Zaporozhe and Dnepeotrovsk, according to the British United Press Moscow correspondent. Cossack cavalry and motorised units, out ahead of the main Russian armies driving towards the Lower Dnieper, are cutting the enemy’s communications and wiping out isolated German garrisons in a series of swift stabs. Bitter fighting is going on along the Sea of Azov coast, where the Russians are threatening to cut the MelitopolDnieper Railway and cut off more Germans. Some of the bitterest fighting of summer marked the fall of the Novgorod-Syeversk. An arc of steel ■surrounded the town, in which crack German units occupied immensely strong defensive positions. The Germans called it their Eastern wall, but it shivered, cracked and finally broke ■before the weight of the Russian attack. One Russian unit alone killed 1,500 Germans. The “Red Star” says the Russians, after the capture of Novorossisk, are hotly pursuing the retreating Germans, who suffered exceptionally heavy losses in the battle for the town.

The Vichy radio says that autumn rains have begun on the Eastern front and that vast bogs are hampering the Russian offensive around Bryansk and also in the Dnieper region. The Russian High Command has stepped up the intensity of its attack along the front in order to reach a decision of strategic importance before rains make fighting impossible. The Russian thrust towards Smolensk is particularly violent. Soviet troops have occupied Bryansk and Bezhitsa, states a special order of the day from Marshal Stalin. Bezhitsa is five miles west of Bryansk, on the Bryansk-Smolensk Railway.