RUSSIAN THRUSTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 November 1943, Page 3

RUSSIAN THRUSTS

INTO HEART OF DNIEPER BEND German Defensive Efforts Smashed ENEMY ATTACKS ON KIEV SALIENT THROWN BACK SOME POSITIONS REGAINED UY SOVIET FORCES LONDON, November 22. In the Dnieper bend the Germans are being pushed back by a double Russian thrust. From their Kremenchug bridgehead the Soviet forces are continuing a forward thrust directed at the heart of the enemy positions in the Dnieper bend and another advance threatens in rear the town of Nikopol, on the south side of the bend. The Russians are building up powerful forces on either side of Cherkasy and at the southern end of the White Russia front are intensifying their pressure on Gomel. Another message states that the renewed Russian drive in the Dnieper bend has made good progress in the past 24 hours. Red Army men, storming down the roads and railways south-west of Dnepropetrovsk, have captured a string of towns and are now more than halfway to Apostolovo, the railway junction through which all enemy traffic in the bend has to pass. Soviet forces are also striking across the neck of the bend south-west of Kremenchug. Yesterday they broke through enemy defences and took a number of fortified positions. The Germans flung in masses of tanks and motorised infantry in an unsuccessful attempt to hold up this critical drive. In a single attack on one sector they lost 3000 men and 60 tanks. Farther up the Dnieper the Germans are ferociously resisting the Soviet onslaughts in the Cherkasy area. The Moscow radio today stated that in the great battle west of Kiev, where German panzers are trying to break through the southern flank of the Red Army salient, the Russians not only flung back all attacks yesterday but by counter-attacks captured two heights and three towns. There is no indication that the German pressure has diminished.

FARING BADLY

GERMANS ON SOUTHERN FRONT COUNTER-OFFENSIVE CHECKED. SOVIET FORCES DEVELOPING NEW ATTACKS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Reieived Tnis Day, 10.35 a.m.) LONDON, November 22. Two developments of tremehdous significance dominate the Russian front today, say Moscow dispatches. Firstly, the Red Army has assumed the offensive against the Germans’ counter-blow from Jitomir; secondly, the Red Army has started a final campaign to clear the Germans from the entire west bank of the Dnieper by operations around Cherkassy, and a massive assault south of Kremenchug, against the Germans in the Dnieper bend.

News from the Russian front is the best for days, says a British United Press correspondent. The Red Army in the Jitomir and Korostyshev areas, aftei’ withstanding German counterblows for eight days, has gone over to the offensive at several points. Russian tank units have now reached the battlefield, and are engaging the enemy armoured forces in a series of stiff fights, forcing them to withdraw with terrific losses. The tide of battle east of Jitomir and Korostychev appears to be turning in the Russians’ favour. The Germans are still counter-attacking, but the enemy’s counter-offensive is now being waged against prepared Russian positions, in which General Vatutin’s men are contesting every yard. The Russian General Staff’s object in launching the assault south of Kremenchug is to wipe out the German foothold in the Dnieper bend, which, with a successful conclusion of the operations in the Cherkasy sector, would gain complete -control of the west bank of the Dnieper for the Russians. The Red Army, during its tremendous assault south of Kremenchug, killed 3000 Germans and destroyed 60 tanks. A bitter battle is going on at Cherkasy, where the Russians are still pouring across the Dnieper, and the Germans are clinging to defences around the city.