LEFT TOO LATE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 November 1943, Page 4

LEFT TOO LATE

GERMAN COUNTERSTROKE

ON SOUTHERN FLANK OF DNIEPER BEND ACCORDING TO AGENCY REPORT RUSSIAN SALIENT SECURE (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day. 12.25 p.m.) LONDON. November 17. The British United Press expresses the opinion that if General von Mannstein had launched his massive counterblow earlier, when the Kiev salient was first being pushed out,, he might have succeeded, but the German High Command left its bid too late. It is added that the left flank of the Red Army’s salient is now secure and strong enough for new attacks against the Germans’ west Ukrainian communications system.

Meanwhile, Moscow reports confirm that General Vatutin’s forces on the north flank of the salient are progressing. irresistibly towards Korosten. The classic Russian pincers movement is being employed. As one column strikes round northwards of the town, the German garrison is pinned down by heavy pressure from the south and west. Russian guns are now shelling the outskirts of Korosten. The reports add that Gomel is now isolated. The Berlin radio tonight admitted another retreat towards Korosten, saying; “Russian attempts to break through were not successful, because the German line was taken back some miles.” The radio added that southwest of Gomel German defence formations had been withdrawn to shortened positions and that savage hand to hand fighting was going on north-west of Gomel. The German news agency commentator, Von Hammer, predicted major Red Army operations at the gates of the Crimea and added that a Russian thrust made at the Perekop Isthmus had' been frustrated by a shortening of the German front. SOVIET GAINS IN RESUMED OFFENSIVE IN DNIEPER BEND. SOME POSITIONS LOST FURTHER SOUTH. LONDON, November 17. The Russians have resumed their big drive south-west of Dnepropetrovsk after a pause of eleven days. A communique states that the enemy was dislodged from several heavily fortified positions in the lower part of the Dnieper bend, one of them a town midway between Zaporozhe and the manganese mining centre of Nikopol and only three miles distant from the railway linking these two places. On the southern side of their Kiev bulge, Soviet troops have had to abandon several inhabited places in face of heavy enemy attacks. All reports regarding the front further north speak of continued Russian successes. In their drive on Korosten the Russians have taken another 50 places, one of them only five miles north-east of the junction. Three of the five railways which enter Korosten have been cut by the Soviet forces. West of Gomel, the Russians have broken into the outskirts of Rechitza and they have also improved their positions across the Soj River, south of Gomel. STAND ATTEMPTED BY GERMANS IN RUSSIA. HITLER’S REPORTED ORDER. (Received This Day, 1.10 p.m.) LONDON, November 17. The Exchange Telegraph Agency’s Zurich correspondent declares that well-informed circles in Berlin state that the time for withdrawal according to plan in Russia has definitely passed and that the German Army is firmly determined to resist the Russian offensive with the utmost vigour. Hitler is reported to have instructed the High Command to hold a front line outside Germany, All available reserves, is is reported, are being sent to Russia. The “Volkischer Beobachter” says: "Germany, for the first time since 1913, has a war on her own territory. Today _ we , have many devastated towns, with millions of bombed-out Germans. Nevertheless we .have not lost faith that Hitler will solve our difficult, problem.”