GERMANS IN CRIMEA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 November 1943, Page 4

GERMANS IN CRIMEA

SOME GETTING AWAY BY SEA AS RUSSIANS NEAR PEREKOP ENEMY GARRISON IN KRIVOI ROG BEING LEFT TO ITS FATE (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.45 a.m.) LONDON, October 31. With the Russians only 15 miles from Perekop, on the isthmus linking the Crimea with the mainland, the Germans have begun an evacuation of the Crimea by sea. Barges and sailing boats are being used to get Germans and Rumanians away. The single track railway across the Perekop isthmus, through Kherson, is crowded with escape trains. The Germans are blowing up convalescent homes and hotels on the Crimea as {hey leave.

The Russian capture of Genichesk gives them command of the eastern approaches to the Crimean Peninsula. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says the Germans panicked when the Russians stormed into Genichesk from two sides. Officers tried hard to restore order, shooting down some fleeing men with revolvers.

According to the Tass Agency, the Russians have advanced between 75 and 85 miles from Melitopol. The Scandinavian Telegraph Bureau declared that the Germans have given up hope of holding Krivoi Rog, which is the keystone of the Dnieper bend defences. They have decided to leave the German garrison to its fate. The Russian ring around Krivoi Rog is tightening and the only question is how long the German garrison will be able to hold out.

The Stockholm newspaper “Social Demokraten’s” Berlin correspondent states that the Germans are sending all available troops to the Eastern front. Leave has been cancelled and men have been summoned by telegram to return to their units. The Moscow radio quoted the observation of a German soldier who obeyed orders to the letter. The German stated when he surrendered: “Ckir unit was ordered to hold on to the last man. SOVIET OFFICIAL REPORT CONTINUED GOOD PROGRESS BETWEEN DNIEPER AND SEA OF AZOV (By Telegraph—(Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.55 p.rn.) LONDON, October 31. Tonight’s Soviet communique says: “The Red Army, between the Dnieper and the Sea of Azov coast, continued to pursue the retreating enemy and occupied over 200 inhabited places, includ'ing Chaplinka, 15 miles from Perekop and several district centres. The Russians south-west of Dnepropetrovsk continued their offensive and occupied several places. The Russians in the Krivoi Rog sector continued to repel counter-attacks from large tank and infantry forces. .On other sectors of the front there was intense reconnaissance and artillery, activity.” The latest despatches put the Russians about 25 miles from Nikopol, where the railway crosses the Dnieper into territory already threatened by the Soviet armies inside the Dnieper bend. The Russians are also within 16 miles of Kakhovka.