DNIEPER BATTLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 September 1943, Page 4

DNIEPER BATTLE

DEVELOPING ON FRONT OF 300 MILES SOVIET TROOPS ATTACKING CROSSINGS. RAPID ADVANCE INTO WHITE RUSSIA. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.15 p.m.) LONDON, September 28. The struggle for the Dnieper cressings is developing into an extended battle along the whole 300mile stretch of the river from Kiev to Zaporozhe, in which the Red Army is aided by mass assaults from Soviet planes. The Russians have a firm grip on the east bank of the Dnieper on wide stretches, but very fierce fighting is going on in some sectors for the remaining enemy bridgeheads. The latest front line reports state that the Red Army has established a bridgehead on the west bank between Kiev and Cherkasy, but there is no official confirmation so far. Reuter's Moscow correspondent reports that three Russian forces have begun crossing the river opposite Dnepropetrovsk, where the Berlin radio tonight admitted the Russians had launched a large-scale attack. The Reuter correspondent says assault forces of a Russian crack Guard unit are swarming across the remains of two railway bridges spanning the river. The Russians are also using small islands as stepping-stones for their assault, which is covered by a shuttle service of fighter planes and a heavy artillery barrage. Meanwhile, at the other two key bridgeheads—opposite Kiev and at Kremenchug — the Germans have brought up a fresh division. The Germans have also increased their air support, the correspondent adds, and are using a tremendous concentration of artillery, but their resistance is gradually wearing down. Kremenchug, on the east bank of the Dnieper, is being taken into a steadilynarrowing grip. The Russians are closing in from the north-east, where they are only five miles distant, and also from the east and north. The German news agency reported tonight that the Russians were attempting to occupy in strength some Dniepei’ islands north of Kiev, and also were endeavouring to build a pontoon bridge under cover of night.

Meanwhile the Red Army’s advance into White Russia, which is termed the key to Poland and the Baltic States, is assuming triumphant proportions, states Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. “Only four days afetr the capture of Smolensk,” he says, “thousands of Russians are advancing on a front of over 2CO miles, and are well on the road to the key towns of Mohilev, Orsha and Vitebsk —three vital points 1 in the advance towards Minsk, the capital of White Russia and the anchor of the old Minsk-Odessa line.”

At the southern end of the long front the German news agency reported a fierce battle on the outskirts of a suburb of Melitopol. The news agency claimed that the Russian attacks were held in violent defensive fighting. The agency also reported a new Russian attack on the Kuban bridgehead, where the Russians are attempting to land reinforcements south of the Taman Peninsula.