ESCAPE GAP

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 October 1943, Page 4

ESCAPE GAP

FOR GERMANS IN DNIEPER BEND BEING CLOSED RELENTLESSLY . BY RUSSIA'nS FIERCE CONFLICT AT MELITOPOL IN FINAL PHASE (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.45 p.m.) LONDON, October 22. The Red Army is relentlessly closing the escape gap for the German army in the Dnieper bend. The gap has already been cut down to less than 60 miles, according to the latest Moscow reports. The Russian wedge inside the bend is now firmly based and has been driven within 20 miles of Krivoi Rog. A later message says the Russians are within 18 miles of Krivoi Rog. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says there is no semblance of any German line inside the bend. The Germans are fighting a series of hastily improvised actions, from one fortified point to another. With the end of the epic battle for Melitopol in sight, the second stage in the battle for the Dnieper bend is opening. Special Russian storm units are clearing the last quarter of Melitopol still in German hands. The city’s final reduction will spring the trap on Von Mannstein’s divisions within the bend, by releasing big Soviet forces for a sweep round the Southern Dnieper to its mouth at Kherson. The present battle will prove one of the most decisive since Stalingrad. It is not without reason that German prisoners are now saying that the loss of the Dnieper means the loss of the Ukraine, which will foreshadow the doom of the German armies in Russia.

The suspense with which Moscow is following events is shown by crowds jostling around the news bulletins, but as the battle for Melitopol enters its final phase German resistance has reached a new peak. With fanaticism, they are launching as many as four counter-attacks hourly. No fewer than 30 counter-attacks, in battalion strength, were repulsed yesterday, when Russian assault squads cleared 21 new city blocks. The main battle for the city has split up into individual clashes, fought out to the last man, on the stairs and upper floors of every house, with bayonets, knives and handgrenades, adds the Reuter correspondent. In contrast with the Melitopol stand, the very heavy tank battles of the past few days north of Krivoi Rog have slackened. The Germans apparently are either husbanding their resources or regrouping for renewed counter-attacks, but only a succession of counter-blows more powerful than any von Mannstein has yet been able to achieve can stave off the present threat, which has the making of a major disaster. Once deprived cf Krivoi Rog, it is most unlikely that the Germans will be able to extricate, by the alternative and tortuous rail route, more than a relatively small proportion of the troops within the Dnieper bend. Progress along the east-west railway is slow but steady. The Russians in the west are less than 30 miles from Snamenka, the focus of all the railways running westward from the bend. The Russians in the east are also increasing their direct threat to Dnepropetrovsk. According to the Swiss radio, the ’Russians have encircled Dnepropetrovsk. The British United Press Moscow correspondent says there is no longer any doubt about the decisive character of the Dnieper bend fighting. All the Russian communiques show one thing above everything else—-the Germans are standing and fighting. There are hardly any German prisoners, indicating that the Germans are fighting it out, knowing that the most disastrous retreat of all is hanging over their heads. TITANIC STRUGGLE BEING WAGED FOR KiEV. ■ RIVER STREWN WITH CORPSES. i By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 1.5 p.m.) LONDON, October 22. The great battle for Kiev is continuing with undiminished ferocity. The British United Press says the Russians north of Kiev have expanded their bridgeheads and, using big tank and cavalry forces, are fighting and moving toward the city yard by yard. The slaughter is immense, especially along the river bank. Corpses flow down on the tide, as numerous as leaves on an autumn day. Yet the Germans are still throwing in every man they can scrape up from the rear in a titanic effort to retain Kiev. The Moscow radio says that since the outbreak of the Russian-German war, the Russian Northern Fleet has sunk ever 300 enemy transports and other vessels, totalling 1,500,000 tons. The Fleet’s anti-aircraft guns have shot down 752 planes, and marines have killed over 29,000 officers and men. NAZI WAR MACHINE TOTTERING AND GROWING WEAKER. DECLARATION BY MOSCOW RADIO. (Received This Day, 1.0 p.m.) LONDON, October 22. The Press Association’s military writer has calculated that between the Pripet marshes around Kiev to the Sea of Azov, between 70 and 90 German divisions are engaged in battles representing between 1,000,000 and 1,250,000 men. The Moscow radio tonight declared: “The German war machine is tottering and growing daily weaker, after enormous losses in the battles for the Dnieper.” Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says the Germans before Kiev are throwing into the fighting line bandsmen, supply troops and security police. “They seem,” he says, “to machine-gun whole groups of German soldiers attempting to retreat. The approaching Russian threat has given the signal for a new wave of terrorism within the city. Night after night the sound of volleys on the outskirts of the city tells of more Soviet citizens dying before German firing squads.” The German News Agency has reported powerful new Russian attacks in the Pereyslavl area, where the Red

Army holds a bridgehead 50 miles south-east of Kiev. The Berlin radio stated that the Russians made new attacks north-west of Smolensk and south-west of Velikiye Luki and claims that the breach was sealed off. A German war reporter, speaking over the Berlin radio tonight, referring to the fighting in the Kremenchug area, admitted that the Russians had effected a deep break through. He said: “Our troops have had a hard time. They have been fighting without a rest since June 15 and have hardly ever had time to take off their boots.”