SOVIET SPEARHEAD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 November 1943, Page 3

SOVIET SPEARHEAD

FORTY MILES BEYOND PEREKOP ENCIRCLED GERMAN FORCE ANNIHILATED. HUGE CAPTURE OF WAR MATERIAL. LONDON, November, 2. The Red Army, pursuing the Germans toward the mouth of the Dnieper, is within 20 miles of the main crossing opposite Kherson • and has captured a town and harbour on the Black Sea 40 miles beyond Perekop. Other Russian forces have been relentlessly hacking and compressing forces of Germans which were pinned against the shores of the lake north of the Crimea and against the lower reaches of the Dnieper. Moscow reports • that a German force which was surrounded north of the lake has been annihilated, and many prisoners have been taken. Berlin reports that the Red Army yesterday-pade a landing in the eastern Crimea on the Kerch Penninsula and won a foothold. A correspondent says that great areas of the steppes behind the Germans are ablaze and, adding to the weird scene, huge flocks of bewildered birds are circling over the battlefields.

Kakhovka was captured after an allday battle in which all those Germans, numbering thousands, who were unable to reach the opposite bank of the river, were annihilated. The enemy left-behind huge quantities of war material and arms. Kakhovka is at one of the three main crossings of the lower Dnieper.

FORCED MUSTER

OF ALL ESTONIA MALES 'OF MILITARY AGE. PROCLAIMED BY GERMANY. NEW YORK, November 2. “In view of the oncoming Russian threat,” Germany has proclaimed the mobilisation of all Estonian males born between 1902 and 1922, says the Stockholm correspondent of the “New York Times.” ’ This step follows Himmler’s failure to obtain voluntary enlistments. Retaliating for Estonia’s refusal to join the Wehrmacht, Himmler has ordered Storm Troopers to confiscate and burn the public libraries of the Estonian University. A correspondent says that the compulsory mobilisation of the tiny Estonian army, numbering at most 100,000, illustrates Germany’s dire need for soldiers owing to the heavy losses on the Eastern front.