RUSSIANS CLOSING IN RAPIDLY ON PEREKOP

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 November 1943, Page 3

RUSSIANS CLOSING IN RAPIDLY ON PEREKOP

Land Gateway to the Crimea GERMAN FORCES SPLIT AND PURSUED FURTHER NORTH AIR BATTLES BEING FOUGHT OVER KRIVOI ROG LONDON. October 31. A Soviet communique states that Russian troops today, between the Dnieper and the Crimea, have kept up their pressure on the retreating enemy and have occupied 200 places. They are now .only 15 miles from Perekop, the entrance to the Crimea. Inside the Dnieper bend, the Russians are keeping up their offensive south-west of Dnepropetrovsk and have occupied several towns and villages. In the Krivoi Rog area Soviet forces are still repelling counter-attacks by large enemy tank and infantry forces. From other sectors intense reconnaissance and artillery activity is reported. The main Russian objective, a correspondent states, is to cut off the Perekop gateway to the Crimea. Powerful German forces are massing to meet the shock of the Russian columns. In the southern sector, the Germans have launched counter-attacks and are using tanks and infantry brought up from the Crimea itself. The Russians are now moving up their guns. With Perekop in Russian hands, the Germans will have only one way of escape from the Crimea—by sea, under the guns of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet.

On the northern front, the Russians have split the Germans into two groups and are pushing through the Dnieper marshes and keeping up their relentless pursuit of the enemy troops. Big air battles are taking place over the Krivoi Rog front. The Germans are making determined, efforts to bomb the Russian, supply lines where they cross the Dnieper. Twenty or thirty times a day Russian fighters have to beat off big formations of German bombers.