FOLLOWED UP FAST

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 October 1943, Page 3

FOLLOWED UP FAST

SOVIET VICTORIES ON SOUTHERN FRONT Powerful Thrusts Into Dnieper Bend AND DOWN MAIN RAILWAY TO CRIMEA FRESH RUSSIAN FORCES MASSING FOR ATTACK ON KRIVOI ROG LONDON, October 26. * Today’s Moscow communique says the Ked Army is following hard on the heels of the retreating Germans in its offensive north-west and south-west of Melitopol and also south-west of Dnepropetrovsk. „ In the Melitopol area, Soviet troops have freed 28 towns and villages and advanced an average depth of three miles. In the fighting beyond Dnepropetrovsk they have liberated more than 30 towns and villages. The Red Army’s advance in this area is nine miles in depth at some places. The Germans suffered enormous losses. Soviet troops continue to advance in the direction of Krivoi Rog and among the places occupied is a. railway station. The Russians have taken immense quantities of booty, including an enormous assortment of military equipment. The Germans report that the Russians are massing fresh forces for an attack on Krivoi Rog. A Moscow correspondent says the Germans must now get out of the Dnieper bend with all speed, or risk annihilation; in any case, they have left it too late to save more than a small proportion of their material. Attacking the rear of the Germans in the Dnieper bend from the north and west, the right fist of the offensive is pounding against the suburbs of Krivoi Rog, expanding the great salient and lessening the Germans’ escape gap toward Nikolaev. Motorised forces, comprising the left arm of the Red Army offensive, are believed to be half-way from Melitopol to the Perekop' isthmus, the land bottleneck of the Crimea, while Cossack cavalry is harrying the Germans near the isthmus. Other forces are advancing toward Nikopol and Kherson. The attempted enemy evacuation of the Crimea by land and sea is reported to be in full swing.