“SMOLENSK GATE”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 September 1943, Page 4

“SMOLENSK GATE”

SMASHED IN BY SOVIET TROOPS OFFENSIVE PROCEEDING. ON FRONT OF OVER 800 MILES. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.50 a.m.) RUGBY, September 19. Yet another offensive just announced by Marshal Stalin extends the front of the Russian advance another 100 rpiles northward to beyond Smolensk and brings the Russians thirty miles north-east of that city. An order of the day addressed by Generals Yeremenko and Sokolovsky states: “Troops of the Kalinin front, in four days’ fierce fighting, broke a strongly fortified enemy defence zone and cleared positions long prepared at Rikshevo, Bardino, Lomonosovo, Kulagino and Pankratvo. The Soviet troops took by storm the most important defence points on the road to Smolensk, including the town of Dukhovshchfna. Troops of the western front, after stubborn fighting, broke enemy resistance and occupied an important point of the German defence on the approaches to Smolensk, the town and station of Yartsevo. Thus the Soviet troops broke down a strongly fortified enemy defence zone, erected long ago, which closed the so-called Smolensk Gate. The usual salvoes were Ordered to be fired in Moscow.” Yartsevo which is on the main route from Moscow, via Viazma, is 31 miles north-east of Smolensk and Dukhovshchina is 32 miles north-north-east. The front of the whole offensive, from the Smolensk sector to the Sea of Azov and across the Taman Peninsula, is now between 800 and 900 miles. The greatest progress, since the offensive began two months ago, is 200 miles, in the centre, while 150 miles have been gained in the Donetz Basin and 130 miles in the Bryansk area.