STEADY PROGRESS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 December 1943, Page 3

STEADY PROGRESS

RUSSIANS ADVANCE ON KEY RAILWAY CENTRES GERMAN POSITION BECOMING MORE DIFFICULT. ENEMY ATTACKING KIEV SALIENT. LONDON, December 7. The Russians are steadily converging on three key railway centres, including Snamenka and Smela, which control all the main supply routes of the German armies in the Dnieper Bend. The Red Army is closing in on Snamenka from three sides. Mr Paul Winterton, the London “News-Chron-icle’s” Moscow representative, thinks the fall of Snamenka is imminent. The Germans, Mr Winterton states, are also in a desperate position ten miles further along the line. This length of line is under fire from Russian artillery and is almost useless to the enemy. Smela is not yet in such obvious danger as the'other two places. but the Germans have been cut off from the south and the Russians are rapidly pushing forward, greatly helped by guerillas. Further north, the Germans have resumed their attacks on the Kiev salient, after a pause of several days. Fighting is particularly violent on the west side of the salient. The latest reports were that the Russians weie holding their positions.