EXTENDING QUICKLY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 November 1943, Page 3

EXTENDING QUICKLY

SOVIET DRIVES WEST OF GOMEL AND TOWARDS KOROSTEN Considerable Additional Areas Occupied HEAVY ENEMY COUNTER-ATTACKS THROWN BACK HARD FIGHTING CONTINUES IN CRIMEA LONDON, November 16. The Red Army has followed up quickly its success in cutting the main road, and railway west of the enemy stronghold of Gomel, at tb/Asouthern end of the White Russia front. Soviet troops have captured a town 16 miles west of Rechitsa ana twice that distance south-west of Gomel. This means that the Russians now hold eight miles of the main railway west of Gomel. At the same time the Russians are developing an attack from the north on Gomel itself. This important enemy stronghold now lies precariously in a deep salient. The Germans still control one railway from Gomel, to the north-west, but it is inves e closely on both sides and is considered quite unequal to the task of maintaining the heavy flow of supplies needed by the Germans in Gomel. Heavy enemy counter-attacks have been repelled. Soviet forces are also extending their drive on the junction of Korosten, 50 miles north of Jitomir, and in this region have captured another 60 places, including a railway town 16 miles distant from Jitomir. In the Crimea, the Russians are still fighting hard to extend their bridgeheads on either side of the town of Kerch.

MAJOR THRUST

ALONG SMOLENSMIINSK HIGHWAY GERMAN RESERVES PINNED DOWN. FALL OF KOROSTEN EXPECTED SOON. i (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) LONDON, November 16. South-west of Gomel the Russians are driving to the fringe of the Pripet Marshes, and yesterday captured a district centre 25 miles north-east. of ’ 'Korosten, widening the offensive against that city. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says the fall of Korosten is expected soon. Along the high road from Kiev, Russian cavalry, which ig fanning out on the plains between the north-south railway and the Pripet Marshes, threatens to cut off Korosten from the north. Yesterday 30 places in the Korosten area were captured. The forces advancing on Korosten from the west must by now be near the outskirts of the city. Other Russian forces are fanning out from Jitomir in a way that must influence the Germans’ position at Korosten. It is reported that the Russians have launched a major attack along the Smolensk-Minsk highway. This, with the assault west of Gomel, has effectively pinned down the German reserves in these northern areas and prevented their transport southward to /buttress the strained German positions against the crushing weight of the RusIsian offensive. Reporting on the battle on the underside of the Kiev bulge, last night’s Soviet communique stated that the Germans, usingi large forces of tanks and infantry, yesterday launched counterattacks south of Jitomir and Fastov, but these were repelled. The Moscow “Pravda” says: “The military initiative everywhere is in our hands, or the hands of our allies. The strength of Hitlerite Germany is strained to the utmost, and the Hitlerite coalition is cracking in all its seams. “Battles of unprecedented violence are now raging beyond the Dnieper. The first snow has appeared. It will ’become a death-shroud for Hitlers Germany.”