MUCH MATERIAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 October 1943, Page 4

MUCH MATERIAL

ABANDONED BY GERMANS IN CONFUSED RETREAT NORTH OF CRIMEA ENEMY COLUMNS CONSTANTLY HARRIED (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.25 a.m.) LONDON, October 29. The Germans have been finally thrown out of the Nogaisk Steppe and are streaming back in a confused retreat across the dreary Tauride Steppe, directly north of the Crimea, says the British United Press Moscow correspondent. The enemy, for mile after mile, left a continuous line of abandoned material, sufficient to equip a new army. For instance at two railway stations on the Crimea-Melitopol line, the Russians found 450 wagons laden with war material. The correspondent adds that the German Army on the Lower Dnieper has definitely been cut in two. General Tolbukhin’s advance opens up three tremendous possibilities: Firstly, the sealing of Genichesk and Perekop, the eastern and western exits of the Crimea; secondly, the blocking of the Germans’ escape line down the Dnieper at Kherson, or between Nikopol and Kherson; thirdly, an attack against Nikopol from the south. The fleeing Germans are making frantic efforts to disengage from General Tolbukhin’s speedy vanguard. The Germans are putting up rearguard screens, but Red Army motorised forces keep penetrating them and harrying the main German forces. General Tolbukhin obviously intends to drive right through into the rear of the broken enemy. The “Izvestia” says: “Our troops are pouring into the gap between Melitopol and the Sea of Azov. Fighting is raging over the length and breadth of the steppe. The Russians are constantly sweeping behind the enemy columns. The desperate Germans, after hand to hand fighting against the Russians pursuing them, turn, only to find Red Army.’units also on their road of retreat.” SOVIET TANKS PUSHING THROUGH GAPS SPLITTING ENEMY FORCES INTO SMALL GROUPS (Received This Day, 12.50 p.m.) LONDON. October 29. Cossack cavalry, between Melitopol and the Sea of Azov, are opening gaps in the enemy’s lines through which the. Red Army’s light tanks are able to push, says Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. The tanks are disrupting the enemy’s communications and splitting his formations into small isolated groups left in the wake of the main body’s retreat. These groups later will be mopped up at leisure. The latest indications are that a considerable body of the enemy is moving southwards, intending to make a stand near the approaches to the Crimea but thus far the speed and weight of the Russian pressure is not giving the Germans a chance to reform. The Luftwaffe is putting up planes in an effort to stem the Russians’ progress, but the Red Air Force is swamping them. The German News Agency’s military correspondent says new enemy concentrations have opened strong fronts against the Germans' flanks in their penetration of the area west of Melitopol. “The enemy has begun to throw in strong cavalry formations,” he adds, “which are intended to force a decision at points where the fate of the battle hangs in the balance.” Reuter reports that the Germans inside the Dnieper bend are steadily being squeezed into a funnel which narrows into the Krivoi Rog-Vshivoie escape gap. The Red Army is rapidly moving down the railway towards Vshivoie, while spearheads are pushing southwards in new thrusts to the rear of this junction. Across a 20-mile gap at Krivoi Rog heavy fighting is going slowly but surely in the Russians’ favour. German, counter-attacks are intensifying as the Red Army’s grip tightens. The Russians’ right flank has made a westward movement which has increased the threat against Snamenka.