GERMANS IN DESPERATE POSITION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 October 1943, Page 4

GERMANS IN DESPERATE POSITION

RUSHING UP REINFORCEMENTS AT KIEV Local Breaches made by Russians BITTER STRUGGLE AT GOMEL RED ARMY FIGHTING AMONG FLAMES & RUINS (By Telegraph.—Press Association.—Copyright.) . '• (Received This Day, 1.20 p.m.) ‘ LONDON, October 14. The Germans are rushing reinforcements to Kiev in a desperate attempt to hold up the Russian advance long enough to ■ evacuate the city. The fighting outside the town, is reported to be by far the fiercest since the battles for Orel and Byelgorod. The roads from Kiev are jammed with German lorries carrying away everything moveable. The surrounding villages, which had been inhabited by so-called German colonisers, are now deserted. Moscow correspondents give no further details of the fight- , ing but Captain Sertorius, the German commentator, admits that the Russians have made local breaches in the Kiev area. “The Russians are hurling in masses of men south-east and north of Kiev,’’ he writes. Reuter’s correspondent says that the Russians on the White Russian front are fighting among the flames and ruins of Gomel’s biggest buildings. General Popov’s troops hold the city in a semi-circular vice. The Germans have determinedly defended. Gomel throughout the campaign. The Russians during September penetrated the outskirts, but this time the position of the Germans is stated to be desperate, Russians who have got out of the town say that the Germans are systematically reducing it to rubble, blowing up block after block.