WEST OF DNIEPER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 October 1943, Page 4

WEST OF DNIEPER

i EXTENSIVE RED ARMY | PENETRATION INDICATED BY GERMAN REPORTS (Received This Day, 12.55 p.m.) LONDON, October 5. The German News Agency has given the first indication of an extensive Red Army penetration west of the Dnieper. The agency ; claimed that the Germans had recaptured Chernobyl in an attack by " armoured and motorised forces. ' Chernobyl is near the junction of the Pripet and Ush Rivers, 40 miles ’ of Chernigov and ten miles west of the Dnieper. -The Berlin radio’s commentator, Captain Sertorius, after saying the Russians were trying to widen their Dnieper bridgeheads, claims that the stabilisation of the situation in the past few ."’clays is actually the result of increased " German resistance. “The German command,” he states, “obviously regarded the Dnieper as the last line for a disengaging movement, with Melitopol included in the main battle line to cover the Crimea. In the sector between Melitopol and Zaparozhe, there ' was only local activity. However, re- •- newed concentrations behind the eni emy lines point to the possibility of a 4 speedy resumption of large-scale Russian attacks.” • The German overseas radio stated • that the Russian High Command at ’ present was regrouping for new attacks. “However, the Germans armies are • ready to repel any thrusts against their . new defensive positions,” it added. “The war on the Eastern front has assumed v a stationary character, but this does not . mean that Russian attacks will stop.” Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says • the Russian offensive is not yet over, ” but that its character has been chang- • ed by the nature of the terrain and the weather.