TAKEN BY RUSSIANS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 December 1943, Page 4

TAKEN BY RUSSIANS

“IMPENETRABLE FORTRESS.” OPENING WAY TO JLOBIN. (Received This Day, 12.25 p.m.) LONDON, December 2. Correspondents in Moscow say the Red Army’s path to Jlobin has been opened up by the capture of one of three key positions barring the corridor between the Dnieper and the Soj. General Rokossovsky himself said to a “Red Star” representative: “We have captured an impregnable fortress.” The Berlin radio, quoting Berlin military quarters, states that bad weather conditions, which have blotted out roads and made advances impossible, have melted down the German offensive against the Kiev salient. It is added that fighting yesterday in the Kiev and Korosten area was on a reduced scale, and that no major fighting is reported from the Jitomir-Kiev, region. Marshal Von Mannstein faces a dangerous situation south-west of Kremenchug. The Moscow radio stated that the Red Army had penetrated the enemy’s defences and was surging forward, capturing one locality after another. Fast-moving troeps were striking at the fleeing Germans and not giving them time to recover. The fighting is unceasing, nad has grown in violence with improved weather. Large air forces are in action cn either side. The Germans are suffering enormous losses, and the Red Army is within four miles of Snamenka. The Berlin radio commentator, Von Hammer, admits that the Germans, under the Russians’ pressure, at one point have withdrawn their line a few miles.