DEMANDED OF GERMAN COMMANDER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 October 1943, Page 4

DEMANDED OF GERMAN COMMANDER

In Dnieper Bend Battle TIME SHORT FOR ATTEMPT TO GET OUT OF TRAP RED ARMY PRESSING ON RELENTLESSLY (By Telegraph. —Press Assoeiaf ion.—Copyright.) (h’ecei ved This Day, U.K) a.in.) LONDON, October 20. With the Red Army relentlessly flaying the surviving German defenders of Kiev and Melitopol, correspondents in Moscow agree that General von Manstein must within hours make a fateful decision whether to undertake a fighting withdrawal from the Dnieper bend, involving the loss of thousands of square miles of territory, or risk a trap greater than that of Stalingrad. A British United Press correspondent says that, although it is coming up against tremendous German reserves, the Red Army is driving toward the great metallurgical centre of Krivoi Rog and intensifying its offensive al] along the Dnieper south of Kremenchug. The whole of the German defences inside the Dnieper are beginning to crumble. The Red Army, exploiting the seizure of Pyatikhatki cut the railway between Snamenka and Dnepropetrovsk for 17 miles. Russian tanks and motorised infantry are fanning out beyond the railway. The Luftwaffe is making several thousand sorties daily, attempting to check the Russian advance south-west of Kremenchug.

The German news agency’s military commentator says the Russians are using flame-throwers and super,heavy tanks in the gigantic battle north-west of Dnepropetrovsk. He adds that dense formations of Russian infantry throughout the day are advancing against the German lines, preced by armoured spearheads. Extremely ferocious batles are raging, in which entire tank regiments are racing against the German lines, with flamethrowers pouring out walls of fire. The battle of Kremenchug has become the biggest effort the Russians have ever undertaken. Berlin military circles do not close their eyes to the fact that much depends on the outcome.

“The blackest day in Berlin since the outbreak of war’’ is how the Stockholm newspaper “Afton Bladet’s” Berlin correspondent describes the reaction to the news of the Russian break-through south-east of Kremenchug.