PUT TO FLIGHT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 October 1943, Page 3

PUT TO FLIGHT

GERMANS IN MELITOPOL AFTER DEFENDING BUILDING BY BUILDING. DECISIVE RUSSIAN ASSAULT. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.15 a.m.) RUGBY, October 24. All the Soviet Sunday newspapers are filled with joy at the big i victory achieved over the Germans in the liberation of Melitopol. The newspapers underline that not only has Melitopol been taken, but a decisive factor in the enemy’s powerful defence zone has been broken. It is stressed that on Saturday the Germans still offered resistance, but the Soviet troops by-passed the enemy’s garrison in the northern part of the city and threatened it with encirclement. Under this threat, the Germans fled. Some newspapers are publishing detailed reports about street fighting in the city, stating that every street had been barricaded. From every cellar German automatic riflemen attempted to offer resistance, and streets had to be taken building by building. On Saturday Red Army troops broke into buildings on the northern side of the city and wiped out the Germans by grenade and bayonet charges. The Moscow radio says; “In the streets of Melitopol already one can see Red Army troops laying cables. Soviet civilians who had lived for years under Nazi occupation are appearing and going to military posts offering help. Soviet troops, in their pursuit of the retreating enemy, are already beyond the city. POLISH UNITS VALIANT ACHIEVEMENTS ON EASTERN FRONT. HEAVY LOSSES INFLICTED ON ENEMY. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, October 23. ' On one sector' of the Soviet-German front units of the First Polish Corps under the ,command of Major-General Berling are. successfully operating, states a Soviet supplementary communique today. Carrying out the military task of the Soviet command, Polish infantry of the “Tadeus Kosciusko” Division and tank men of the unit “Heroes of Westerplatte” in the area of an unnamed village broke through the German defence and, in the course of a violent attack, dislodged the Germans from several localities. The enemy suffered heavy losses in men and material, and 306 Germans, including 13 officers, surrendered to the Poles. Enemy attempts to stem the violent advance of the Polish infantry' with mass attacks by dive-bombers and counter-attacks supported by selfpropelled guns and tanks failedfl The Germans could not hold the bayonet charges and artillery fire of the Poles.