LOSS OF GOMEL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 November 1943, Page 4

LOSS OF GOMEL

REPORTED FROM GERMAN SOURCE NEWS NOT YET CONFIRMED BY MOSCOW. SOVIET GAINS IN VARIOUS AREAS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.40 pan.) LONDON, November 25. The Russians have captured Gomel, according to reports reaching Stockholm, which thus far have net been confirmed from Moscow. The German-controlled Scandinavian Telegraph Bureau stated that Gomel was evacuated after the Germans had destroyed all military installations. Fierce fighting is going on near the Kremenchug-Snamenka Railway. The Russians two days ago crossed the line at one point, and at others they are strongly pursuing the Germans towards the line.

Tonight’s Soviet communique says the Red Army recently in the Propoisk area, south and south-east of Mogilev, went over to the offensive, forced the Soj and Pronya rivers, and after three days of fierce fighting penetrated the enemy’s defence line 11 to 28 miles deep, and captured the Propoisk area. They also captured 180 inhabited places, including the large centre of Zhuravichi, 25 miles east and north-east of Rogachev. The Red Army north and south-west of Gomel today fought the enemy and improved its positions. The Russians west of Rechitza continued their offensive and captured the railway station of Ostankbvichi, thereby cutting the Jlobin-Kol&nkovichi Railway. The Russians on the Lower Pripet occupied a number of inhabited places and in the Korosten area repelled infantry attacks. The Red Army south of Kremenchug continued its offensive and captured Krukov and Pavlysh, which is nine miles south of Kremenchug.

AT A STANDSTILL

GERMAN ATTACK ON KIEV SALIENT. WRECKED ENEMY TANKS LITTER BATTLEFIELDS. (Received This Day, 11.50 a.m.) LONDON, November 25. The prolonged enemy counteroffensive against the south flank of the Kiev salient has been brought to a standstill. Moscow dispatches say that a huge concentration of fire power smashed down attacks and that the battlefields in the Jitomir region are littered with the wreckage of monster German Tiger and Panther tanks. According to the Berlin radio, Russian counter-attacks have now been launched north and north-east of Jitomir. A British United Press correspondent says that with the German threat held, the Red Army north and south of the Kiev salient continues to make solid progress. The Russians made a new break through west of Rechitza and cut an important railway line (possibly the Mosir-Rogachev line). Reuter states that as the Red Armypresses forward toward Mosir over a wide arc, Russian sappers, under enemy bombardment, are preparing hundreds of miles of log roads, which are vital for the Red Army’s progress, because one step off the road may mean death in the bottomless Pripet quagmires. Thousands of trees arc being felled to line the sides of the roads in sectors adjoining the marshes as a protection against great snowdrifts. Guerillas are giving the Red Army valuable aid in its encirclement operations against Gomel, but this is the Worst time of the year for guerillas, because soft snow covers the White Russian fields and forests, so that it is impossible to reconnoitre without leaving tracks. The “Pravda” reports that the Russians pierced the German defences at one point on the White Russian front. A Russian unit penetrated to the German rear and captured the commander of the German divisions defending this sector.