OUTFLANKING THREAT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 October 1943, Page 4

OUTFLANKING THREAT

TO THREE GREAT GERMAN STRONGHOLDS SIGNIFICANCE OF SOVIET ATTACKS. EFFORT TO SEAL OFF CRIMEA (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 1.20 p.m.) LONDON, October 10. The tremendous underlying significance of the Russians main thrust is the notential threat of the outflankment of three German strongpoints from the rear. The Russians’ advance from Novel aimed to cut off Vitebsk. The development of the bridgehead north of Kiev is menacing Kiev itself, while the extension of the bridgehead south-east of Kremenchug may surround Dnepropetrovsk.

Now that the Germans have laboriously transferred thousands of troops from the Kuban area to the Crimea, the Red Army is again making an effort finally to seal off the Germans in the Crimea. The German news agency says the Russians, between north of Meililopol and the Sea of Azov, launched their expected new attack and fluctuating battles are going on.

German and Rumanian troops were caught in what the Red Army called the Kuban rat trap. In the final hours of the liberation of the Kuban Peninsula, German prisoners have said, many of their companions went mad under the weight of the Russian barrages. Prisoners also relate how of-

fers deluded them by asserting that a solid motor road had been built across the Kerch Strait and that powerful German tank units were waiting to smash the attacking Russians. The Germans heavily mined the entire Taman Peninsula, the latest “refinements’ ’of mining technique including bombs in pianos, which explode when the instruments are played, and hand-grenades wired on to coathangers. The Russians found hundreds of German and Rumanian corpses huddled in the streets of Port Taman.