EARLIER NEWS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 November 1943, Page 3

EARLIER NEWS

THREAT TO ENEMY LINE IN WHITE RUSSIA HEAVY LOSSES SUFFERED BY GERMANS. IN ATTACKS WEST OF KIEV. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, November 18. As a result of the fall of Rechitza, on the Dnieper the Gomel garrison is in an untenable position, and the city’s early fall is probable, says a Moscow correspondent. The capture of this key base might unhinge the whole German line in White Russia and open the way for a new Russian break-through toward the west. Soviet forces, advancing west of Rechitza are now more than half-way to the Kalinkovitch junction.

Employing no fewer than seven tank divisions, the Germans are intensifying their terrific counter-blow on a narrow sector near Jitomir. The Soviet High Command reports: “The Germans today launched 12 tank attacks, flinging in one tank group after another in an all-out bid to break our defences. All the attacks were repelled in a grim battle, which lasted throughout the day. Forty German tanks, nine selfpropelling guns and 11 armoured transports were destroyed.”