REELING BACK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 October 1943, Page 3

REELING BACK

UNDER TREMENDOUS RED ARMY BLOWS Germans in South Russia NOTHING ORGANISED ABOUT RETREAT SOVIET TROOPS POURING THROUGH SMASHED DEFENCE LINE ■ LONDON, October 28. The Germans in South Russia are still reeling back under the tremendous weight of the Red Army’s offensive. They are falling back all along the front south of the Dnieper bepd. «£h powerful Red Army forces are moving up across the plains Li keeping the retreating Germans on the move. Russian e-bombers are also taking toll of the retreating enemy. Mr Paul Winterton, the London “News-Chronicle’s” Moscow representative says there is nothing organised about the German retreat. In places it is not even controlled. The Germans have taken their biggest knock since Stalingrad. A Soviet communique states that in the region west of Melitopol, Russian troops continue to develop their offensive. Tn some sectors they advanced three to twelve miles and occupied more than 30 places. On the Dnieper front, south-west of Dnepropetrovsk, Soviet forces have freed several places. In the Krivoi Rog sector, the Russians continue to overwhelm enemy resistance and have forged ahead at several points. On the central front, Soviet forces, have advanced three to five miles in some places and captured more than 80 towns and villages. Messages today show that the Russians have lost no time in following up the big break-through and are pouring over the wide Nogaisk"Steppe in hot pursuit of the Germans all along the front of 70 miles, having smashed the last remnants of the enemy defence line. The advance is in three directions: down the railway toward the Crimea; toward Kherson; and toward Nikopol, one of the greatest manganese-producing centres in the world, threatening the Germans’ escape from the Dnieper bend. The Russians have captured Novo Alexandrovka, 35 miles west of Melitopol and one-third of the way to Kherson.