VITAL STRATEGIC CENTRE IN SOUTH RUSSIA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 October 1943, Page 3

VITAL STRATEGIC CENTRE IN SOUTH RUSSIA

Great and Significant Victory Celebrated in Moscow SOVIET FORCES CLOSING ON KRIVOI ROG INCREASING MENACE TO GERMAN ARMIES LONDON, October 24. . Moscow’s guns, 224 of them, in 20 salvoes thundered last nighf proclaiming one of the most significant victories of the present campaign—the capture of Melitopol, strategical centre of the southern front, which the Germans lately described as the key to the Crimea. The Moscow correspondent of the “News-Chronicle’.’ says this victory will have a shattering effect on the Germans’ defence system below the Dnieper bend. It may also have a decisive effect on the fighting inside the bend. The latest messages state that the Red Army has cut the railway linking Dnepropetrovsk with Krivoi Rog and is extending its hold on it. This leaves the large German forces in the Dnieper elbow with only a branch line through Nikopol for supply or retreat. The Red Army is advancing down the neck of the Dnieper bend and is steadily forcing its way closer to the key centre of Krivoi Rog. The latest official news of this Soviet thrust places the Russians 15 miles from this vital railway junction and bottleneck, through which most of the enemy’s supplies pass. A German communique says the Russians have since made further progress towards the town. The Germans admit that very powerful Soviet forces have compelled the Germans to retreat and to take up new positions nearer Krivoi Rog. Further south, following on their capture of Melitopol, Soviet forces have pushed on west and south-west towards the Crimea and Perekop, through which passes the Germans’ only escape railway from the Crimea. Mr Paul Winterton, the London “News-Chronicle’s’’ Moscow representative, says the Germans are being rolled back from the railway from Melitopol to the Crimea. The Germans have no hope of being able to stay in the Crimea. They have already evacuated scores of thousands of troops, but it will not be possible to get all their men out of the Crimea,-with the Russians so hard on their heels. The British Foreign Secretary (Mr Anthony Eden) saw the Russians celebrate their great victory at Melitopol and watched the guns in Moscow fire a salute.