FIERCE BATTLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 November 1943, Page 3

FIERCE BATTLE

ON SOUTHERN SIDE OF KIEV BULGE

Germans Still Throwing in Heavy Tank Forces MORE ATTACKS REPULSED BY RUSSIANS PROGRESS IN DNIEPER BEND AND WEST OF GOMEL LONDON, November 24. . Following’ on reports that the Russians have had to yield more ground in the area of the German counter-offensive west of Kiev, tonight’s Moscow communique states that in this sector the Soviet forces have improved their positions and repulsed enemy attacks. South of Kremenchug the Russians have captured a district centre and they have also improved their positions on other parts of the front. Another report states that the Germans are employing heavy tank forces in an attempt to drive down a valley 20 miles west of Kiev, and that a fierce battle is in progress but that the enemy has nowhere broken through the Russian defences. In the Dnieper bend the Soviet forces are probing and pushing forward steadily in 'an area in which the enemy is obstinately defending every vantage point. On both sides of the Pripet River, west of Gomel, the Russians are driving on relentlessly in difficult country in which they are under the necessity of constructing log roads through swamps. It is again reported that the railway running northwest from Gomel, the enemy’s last supply line, has been cut.