GERMAN LINES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 September 1943, Page 3

GERMAN LINES

BUCKLING DANGEROUSLY UNDER RUSSIAN LAND & AIR BLOWS. RAIN OF SHELLS ACROSS DNIEPER. (By Telegraph—Press Association.—Copyright) LONDON. September 27. The German lines on the White Russian front are already buckling dangerously. The Russians in battles raging day and night have passed to within less than 30 miles of Vitebsk, 70 miles of Mogilev and 30 miles of Gomel. According to Ankara radio, the Russians have penetrated White Russia at four places. Massive concentrations of Russian guns are hurling a continuous rain of shells across the Dnieper and are softening up the German lines for a number of thrusts which are developing at widely separated points. Russian planes shuttling across the narrow gap between the two armies are heavily bombing the Germans. The British United Press Moscow correspondent reports that Russian paratroops which have been landed on the west bank of the Dnieper at many points are now attacking the German rear. An official announcement in Moscow late tonight reports the capture of Katyn, 15 miles west of Smolensk. It is the site of the mass graves of Polish officers, the “discovery” of which by the Germans was the subject of Russian and German charges and countercharges and also the cause of RussianPolish friction. Chernobaisk has been taken in the Kiev area and the Red Army has also captured Onezdovo railway station, five miles west of Smolensk.