GERMANS IN RETREAT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 September 1943, Page 4

GERMANS IN RETREAT

JAMMED ON THE DNIEPER CROSSINGS FIERCE & POWERFUL SOVIET ATTACKS DRIVE INTO WHITE RUSSIA DISORGANISING ENEMY DEFENCE PLANS (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 1.5 p.m.) LONDON, September 30. The British United Press says the latest available news of the position in Dnepropetrovsk is that the Russians have reached the east bank of the Dnieper above and below the city and have begun mopping up in Dnepropetrovsk’s east bank suburbs, while the Germans are swarming over to the west bank. A correspondent, describing the pellmell rush to get across the river, says: “What is happening beggars description, with masses of men and material jamming the crossings.” The Germans previously had placed posters in villages saying: “Males of 16 to 65- must immediately evacuate to the west bank. Those remaining will be liable to be shot on sight as partisans.” Reuter says that throughout the night guns have been roaring across the Dnieper in a series of gigantic duels for mastery of the river crossings. Hundreds of flashes light up the dark waters of the broad, swiftly-flowing river. The Germans have still got big infantry and tank concentrations in their bridgeheads on the east bank. They have been ordered, under threat of shooting, to hold on at all costs.

The “Izvestia” declares that the Russians are advancing into White Russia at great speed, thoroughly disorganising the German defence plans. Reuter reports that heavy Russian guns today are shelling Gomel and that Russian infantry are moving in towards the town under a creeping barrage. Other Red Army units are driving towards the Jlobin junction on the Gomel-Minsk Railway. Tonight’s Soviet communique states: “The Red Army on the steppes front, after two days of fierce fighting, broke the resistance of the enemy over a considerable stretch of the east bank of the Dnieper and captured Kremenchug by assault. In the Kiev sector, the Russians, after throwing the enemy to the west bank of the Dnieper, captured the railway junction of Darnitsa. Advances of up to six miles were made in the Gomel and Mohilev sectors. In the Vitebsk sector, the Russians broke resistance and occupied the town and railway station of Rudnya. Over 660 other inhabited places were occupied during the day.” M. Manuilshy, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, speaking on the Moscow radio, declared: “The breath of victory is now felt. The claim that the German retreat is according to plan in order to shorten the line, is completely false. Recent operations have actually lengthened the line. The Red Army in the last twoa months has advanced 226 miles and has freed an area of over 115,000 square miles—ten times larger than Belgium.” RED ARMY MASSING FOR ASSAULT ON KIEV STAGE SET FOR FINAL BATTLE (Received This Day, 1.25 p.m.) LONDON, September 29. With two main strongholds to conquer—Kiev and Dnepropetrovsk —the Russians are battling unremittedly to make the whole length of the Dnieper indisputably their own. The stage is set for the final battle for Kiev, the Germans’ most vital Dnieper line bastion. Strong Red Army forces are massing for an assault against Kiev. The Germans still hold an eight mile bridgehead on the east bank of the Dnieper opposite Kiev. The Russians are only 3 to 4 miles from the east bank at this point and are steadily pressing on. Kiev stands on 300 feet high cliffs, rising sheer from the Dnieper, making a frontal assault comparable to storming the cliffs of Dover. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says the Russians hold the east bank of the Dnieper for 100 miles north of Kiev and south of Kiev to Zaporozhe, totalling at least 200 miles. The British United Press Moscow correspondent declares that there is not the slightest evidence that the Russians are already attempting to force the Dnieper in the Dnepropetrovsk area, oi' that the railway bridges there have been wrecked. Such reports, printed abroad and carried back to Moscow, merely make Moscow correspondents laugh.