GERMAN ROUT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 October 1943, Page 4

GERMAN ROUT

IN THE DNIEPER BEND “TWILIGHT OF AN ARMY.” RETREAT ACROSS CRUMBLING COMMUNICATIONS. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.20 p.m.) LONDON, October 27. “The twilight of an army is setting in the Dnieper bend, where seme of the Germans’ best infantry and tank divisions are rolling back across crumbling communication lines to a fate which hourly becoming more certain,” says Reuter's Moscow correspondent. “The great rout has begun,” declares the British United Press. Other Moscow reports say the Germans have decided on a full-scale retreat from the Southern Ukraine and the Crimea. Their decision to withdraw has been forced, firstly, because the Red Army pincers have almost closed around the panzer army in the Dnieper bend, and secondly, because the Russian armies, advancing across the Nogaisk Steppe, south of the Dnieper bend, are less than 40 miles from the Perekop Isthmus, the narrow land link between the Crimea and the Russian mainland. The Vichy radio quoted a Berlin High Command spokesman as saying: “A large German withdrawal has begun from the Dnieper bend. Following on the evacuation of Dnepropetrovsk, the High Command considered the operation necessary in order to maintain contact with the forces operating in the Zaporozhe and Melitopol sectors.” Reuter’s correspondent says powerful Red Army groups in the triangle Dne-propetrovsk-Melitopol-Kherson are disrupting and cutting up Von Mannstein’s shrinking divisions, through a strategy which always seems several moves ahead of the German High Command’s plans. One of the Fled Army’s blows from Dnepropetrovsk is hurling back the Germans in ever-dwindling numbers towards the rail junction of Apostolova, 20 miles beyond Krivoi Rog, which is one of the escape channels from the Dnieper bend trap.

strategy which always seems several moves ahead of the German High Command’s plans. One of the Red Army’s blows from Dnepropetrovsk is hurling back the Germans in ever-dwindling numbers towards the rail junction of Apcstolovc, 20 miles beyond Krivoi Rog, which is one of the escape channels from the Dnieper bend trap. TANK BATTLES SWAYING OVER GREAT IRONFIELD. NAZI LOSSES ON SACRIFICIAL SCALE. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright (Received This Day, 12.45 p.m.) LONDON. October 27. The Red Army’s second thrust almost overwhelmed Krivoi Rog. Tank battles in the Krivoi Rog area are swaying over the workings of one of the biggest iron fields in Europe. Russian tank forces have captured part of the iron mines. The Germans here are resisting with the same fanaticism as at Melitopol. Their losses are on a sacrificial scale, reinforcements which are brought up far from the rear melting away. Russian commentators describe the advance against Krivoi Rog as a serious threat for the entire grouping of German troops. The commentators point out that the Russian offensive on the west bank of the Dnieper in two weeks has won back a metallurgical area comparable in value to the Donetz Basin. “There is no longer a unified German command in the Dnieper bend,” says the British United Press. “The German line has broken up into a number of independent sectors, in which each German commander is trying to extricate his forces as best he can.” The Paris radio’s commentator, Jean Paquis, declared that the bloodiest battle ever known is being fought in the Dnieper bend and added that Berlin military circles do not underrate the gravity of the Eastern front position. 'The Russian High Command will doubtless exploit the break through at Melitopol and in the Dnieper bend, Paquis adds, but the Germans are aware of the capital importance of Krivoi Rog as a junction and will defend it to the last man.

Tonight’s Soviet communique states: “The Red Army on the lower reaches of the Dnieper, after very stiff fighting, penetrated a front between the Dnieper and the Sea of Azov, and, pursuing the enemy, advanced six to eighteen miles and occupied over 90 inhabited places. The enemy, retreating under the Red Army’s blows, is suffering enormous losses of manpower and equipment. The Russians southwest of Dnepropetrovsk advanced four to nine miles and occupied 30 places and in the Krivoi Rog sector, overcoming enemy resistance, continued their offensive. The Russians north-east of Vitebsk advanced four to six miles and occupied over 50 places, thereby clearing the Nevel-Usvyat Road of the enemy.” A British United Press correspondent says the Russians are maintaining a heavy two-way traffic across the Dnieper north of Kremenchug, where hundreds of craft, including barges, and even rafts, are ferrying soldiers and material, from the east to the west bank. The craft on their return journey take peasants who are returning to their homes on the eastern side of the river. The correspondent states that the Germans killed at least 20,000 Jews during the occupation of Dnepropetrovsk. The city is a mass of ruins and the main Karl Marx Street looks as if it had been smashed by an earthquake. The Berlin radio claims that two and a half million Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded during the 1943 Russian offensive.