IMPORTANT TOWN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 October 1943, Page 3

IMPORTANT TOWN

STORMED BY SOVIET TROOPS IN WHITE RUSSIA DIRECT THREAT TO GERMANS IN VITEBSK. ENEMY DISORGANISATION IN SOUTH. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 9.15 a.m.) LONDON, October 29. North-east of Vitebsk, our troops, after crossing the Kasplia and the Western Dvina, stormed and captured the town of Suraj, situated at the confluence of the two rivers, says a Moscow communique. The Germans had converted the town into a powerful resistance centre. The “Red Star” says the loss of Suraj means that the German forces defending Vitebsk are now directly threatened. . Dyrnahovka, which the Russians have captured, is 29 miles north-west of Melitopol, and the capture of Nizheserogozhy gives the Red Army control of the whole road network south of the Dnieper bend. The offensive between the Dnieper and the Sea of Azov is still growing, says the Moscow radio. Troops and war material are pouring through the gaps torn in the German lines, and the whole area is a scene of devastation, littered with German war material. Demoralisation is setting in among the Germans on the Melitopol front. Fierce tank battles are raging in the Krivoi Rog area. The Germans are counter-attacking many times, but the Russians are making steady progress. “The Pravda” says the German defences have cracked all along the front between Melitopol and the Sea of Azov. The Russians have not given the enemy time to organise a new defence line. They have split his forces into isolated groups and taken prisoner large numbers. The Luftwaffe has increased its attacks, but this is not affecting the momentum of the Russian advance. The Berlin news agency says hand To hand fighting on the Nogaisk Steppe is growing more bitter. The Russians in the Melitopol area are hurling in new forces on an ever-growing scale. The Vichy radio said the Germans threw in big reserves of tanks in the battle for the Perekop Isthmus, and partly stemmed the Russians’ advance. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says an endless stream of Russian tanks and guns is moving west from Melitopol, in the wake of the retreating Germans. A Russian front line correspondent compares the Red Army advance to a river overflowing, and says the Germans are losing heavily and abandoning ammunition lorries.

GERMANS IN CRIMEA

MAY BE EVACUATED BY SEA DANUBE SHIPPING AVAILABLE (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.45 a.m.) RUGBY. October 29. The Germans are clearly doing all they can to hold their positions in the Nikopol and Krivoi Rog areas longenough to ensure that formations south of the Dnieper bend can escape before they are cut off by the Russians driving towards Kherson, at the mouth of the river. There is little doubt now that the Germans south of the bend are in full flight and that the Russians will get to Perekop fairly quickly. The Crimea will thus be isolated by land, but that does not mean that the German troops there will be captured. Owing to the congestion of land transport evacuation by sea to Rumania — about 100 miles, with air cover all the way—would in any event be easier. It is believed in London that there is adequate Danube shipping for the purpose.