WEST OF KIEV

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 November 1943, Page 3

WEST OF KIEV

GERMANS USING EIGHT TANK DIVISIONS IN FIERCE EFFORT TO BREAK THROUGH SOVIET RUSHING ARMOURED REINFORCEMENTS (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.50 a.m.) RUGBY, November 28. The fiercest fighting on the Russian front appears to be taking place west of Kiev, where, it is . reported, 400 German tanks are battering against a 20-mile sector in an effort to break through into the Soviet rear. The enemy force is officially stated to consist of eight tank divisions, which are being daily replenished with fresh armoured formations. One of the latest arrivals is a tank division which took part in the disarmament of the Italian Army. Concentrations of Tigers, Panthers and Ferdinands against the Chernyakov-Brusilov line are the heaviest since the battle of the Kursk salient opened. The whole battle area is bogged with rain and sleet, but fighting is continuing with unabated fury. Heavy Soviet armoured units are being rushed across the Dnieper to battle under the cover of mists and the intense gloom of the autumn nights. The Soviet Air Force is active, despite the atrocious weather, but the main forces of Stormoviks have not yet entered the battle. Their intervention against the German tanks may be decisive.