OVER 7,000 GERMANS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 October 1943, Page 3

OVER 7,000 GERMANS

KILLED IN DNIEPER CITY BATTLES MORE DETAILS OF RUSSIAN ASSAULT. DECISIVE PART PLAYED. BY AIR FORCE. (By Tel egraoh—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, October 26: The Germans lost more than 7000 killed in the fighting for Dnepropetrovsk and Dneprozerzhinsk. Particularly stubborn fighting occurred for one village, Veseloye, which was defended by large German forces, but was captured by storm.

Complete gun crews, heavy mortars, and even tanks were carried across the Dnieper on pontoons in the operation which resulted in the capture of Dnepropetrovsk, states the “Red Star.” The northern crossing was successful from the start, because of the numerous islands stretching across the river. Another crossing further south, where the river is more than a mile wide, was suddenly lit up by enemy rockets when the Russians were halfway over, but they succeeded in landing. The Russians met with fierce resistance in the centre of the town and also in the area of the railway station.

The Russian Air Force played a decisive part in the capture of Dneprozerzhinsk. The Red Army first cut the German communications and thenbombers and Stormoviks pounded the Germans, wrecked dozens of tanks, and many guns, and prevented the Germans from staging a counter-attack. The Red Army then stormed the town. A correspondent says the capture of the two Dnieper bond towns is a strategic victory of the first order. Both were doomed to fall when the Russians broke through at Kremenchug and when the Russian vanguards approached the railway junction of Krivoi Rog, far in the rear of the German river line defences.