DRAWN TIGHTER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 October 1943, Page 4

DRAWN TIGHTER

RING OF FIRE AND STEEL* TOUMD GERMANS IN DNIEPER BEND RUSSIANS SMASHING FORWARD (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 10.10 a.m.) LONDON, October 25. Correspondents in Moscow state that the Russians are smashing forward and drawing tighter the ring of fire and steel around the Germans in the Dnieper bend and narrowing the escape routes of the German Crimea forces. The capture by storm of Dnepropetrovsk opens the way for a new Russian drive into the bend to link up with those from Kremenchug and from the south, in the Melitopol area. A bl 'w directly from Dnepropetrovsk would split at their centre the German forces already divided to meet the vast encircling movements which are smashin," against their flanks. The elimination of Dnepropetrovsk as a centre of resistance unifies the Russian front in the Dnieper bend, from Kremenchug to Krivoi Rog. Between Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhei was the great dam and power station which the retreating Russians blew up in 1941. Dneprozerzhinsk, also on the Dnieper, is 30 miles west of Dnepropetrovsk. HEAVY FIGHTING CENTRED ON CITY OF KIEV. SIMULTANEOUSLY WITH DRIVES IN SOUTH. (Received This Day, 12.45 p.m.) LONDON, October 25. The powerful northern pincers directed against Krivoi Rog is related to the southern pincer operating south of Zaporozhe, which has joined up with other Russian forces in this sector and cleared almost the entire area along the railway between Zaporozhe and Melitopol. Despatches from Moscow say the Russians are not pausing after the capture of Melitopol, and are now driving out west and south-west in pursuit of the broken German divisions across the steppe towards the Lower Dnieper. Gunfire has become fainter as the Russians move on, indicating that they are already a considerable distance beyond the city. A British United Press crorespondent says the Russians in this sector have complete air superiority, and daredevil Cossack cavalry is ranging to the gates of the Crimea, where tanks and infantry are already half-way between Melitopol and the Perekop Isthmus. To the north, Kiev is still the focal point of heavy fighting, which is raging on the west bank of the Dnieper as far as south of Gomel. Kiev is now invested from north and south, it is believed that the German General Hoth has fourteen divisions defending the city. GERMANS IN FLIGHT MUCH BOOTY CAPTURED BY RUSSIANS. INCLUDING HUNDREDS OF CARS . & LORRIES. (Received This Day, 1.15 p.m’.) LONDON, October 25. Except for two narrow sections which are being pinched off, the entire western bank of the Dnieper north of Kiev is in Russian hands. The Germans in many places have been pushed back so far that Russian ships ar£ sailing on the river, out of range of the German guns. Reuter’s correspondent says the Germans are retreating westward, abandoning loot and even rifles. The Russian haul of booty is growing greater. Supplies captured since the crossing of the Dnieper at Kremenchug include a train loan of goods marked “return to Hamburg,” big stores of grain and hundreds of lorries and cars. Russian tanks are able to adopt the German practice in France of refuelling from abandoned petrol stocks. A Berlin radio commentator says masses of Russian tanks and infantry are, without a pause, pressing on to Krivoi Rog and admits that a wedge has been driven into the German lines towards Nikopol. I

Tonight’s Soviet communique, after announcing the capture of Dnepropetrovsk and Dneprodzershinsk, as well as over 40 other inhabited localities, says that south-west of Melitopol the Russians are continuing to enlarge their wedge driven into the enemy defences. An advance of three to five miles was made in the Krivoi Rog sector. IN DEADLY PERIL AND WELL AWARE OF IT. GERMANS FIGHTING LIKE DEMONS. (Received This Day, 12.20 p.m.) LONDON, October 25. Front line despatches say the Germans are fully aware of the tremendous danger confronting them. They are fighting like de- * mons to prevent the trap closing, shutting them off from escape and ending the possibility of relief from the German northern armies, but a ruinous collapse of the German positions in the western part of the Dnieper bend is imminent. The battle has risen to a pitch of the utmost fierceness around Krivoi Rog. Russian tanks are rolling against the outer defences, where the German troops have been ordered to die where they stand and forbidden to yield ground under threat of death. The Russian troops have already battered their way into the northern suburbs of the city. Simultaneously other Russian forces are driving from the southeast against the escape railway from Nikolayev. The fall of Krivoi Rog is considered likely at any hour, unless the Germans turn the city into another ■Melitopol, and fight street by street and house by house.