ALL BUT ENCLOSED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 November 1943, Page 4

ALL BUT ENCLOSED

GERMAN FORCES IN KIEV MAIN RAILWAY TO THE WEST CUT BY RUSSIANS. ENEMY LINE OF RETREAT MENACED. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) LONDON, November 5. In their renewed offensive against Kiev, the Russians have reached positions 3 miles north and four miles west of the city. On the west they have cut the vital railway connecting Kiev, with Jitomu,. the next big town to the west. The German forces in Kiev are now enclosed on all sides except the south and south-east. The Russians have held the river bank opposite Kiev for many weeks, but their new assault implies a far more imminent danger to the enemy, directly threatening his line of retreat. Soviet forces have occupied every important town in the peninsula south of the Dnieper delta. They have made the junction of Kherson practically useless to the enemy. The Germans are clinging desperately to Nikolaev, north-west of Kherson. If they lose this last remaining junction the whole of their forces in the Dnieper bend will be able to retreat only by way of minor roads which are liable to become impassable in wet weather. NAZI ADMISSIONS DEFENCES PENETRATED BY RUSSIANS. IN THREE VITAL AREAS. (Received This Day, 12.40 p.m.) LONDON, November 5. An admission that the Red Army has broken thrbugh on three sectors of the Southern Russian front was made by a German military spokesman tonight. These sectors are, firstly, Krivoi Rog; secondly, west of Kherson, and thirdly, in the vicinity of Kiev. Heavy fighting is in progress at all three points. The Red Army, for 40 days, almost without respite, has been attacking •north of Kiev. Revealing this, the Berlin radio’s commentator, Captain Sertorius, declared that a new centre gravity of the first rank had appeared there and that the Russians’ incessant attacks greatly increased in strength from the west and south yesterday. Moscow correspondents report that the Russians who penetrated the German defences north of Kiev now control a suburban railway running into the city. The British United Press says the new offensive has resulted in the capture of two north-western suburbs and that only one important suburb lies between the Russians and the city centre. An official map reveals that the Russian bridgehead on the west bank of the Dnieper, beginning 12 miles north of Kiev, extends 110 miles, with an average depth of 16 miles.