TELLING BLOW

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 December 1943, Page 4

TELLING BLOW

STRUCK BY RUSSIANS IN DNIEPER BEND BATTLE. FROST HARDENING GROUND. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.45 p.m.) LONDON, December 8. The Russian success at Snamenka is a most telling blow in the fierce double battle for the Dnieper, in which the . Russians and Germans are giving thrust for thrust, say despatches from Moscow. The ground gained is within the Dnieper bend. Reuter reports that the Russians, driving forward in the Kremenchug area, advanced eight miles southward and ten miles westward. German sources say frost has hardened the ground in the Dnieper bend, allowing the Russians to throw in powerful tank and infantry forces in an attempt to break through. Allied correspondents point out that the cutting of the Snamenka-Privoi Rog Railway would enable a thrust against Wrivoi Rog from the rear. The struggle in the JCiev salient has again become a battle of attrition between German heavy tanks and Russian mobile guns. The Germans are attacking furiously and persistently, but the latest despatches say the Russians are standing firm. There is no indication whether the German onslaught has yet reached its climax. The British United Press says Hitler apparently is gambling on the Allies not launching a second front for some time and is throwing in tanks and men in a terrific new attempt to recapture Kiev for winter quarters. The campaign has the appearance of originating in Hitler’s “intuition.” The Russians have suffered some local reverses, but their lines are unbroken.

The Germans are reiterating claims that the Russians have been thrown back to the sea from their bridgehead south of Kerch, but there is no confirmation of this from other sources. A German communique states: Russian attempts to evacuate troops from the bridgehead south of Kerch failed; also their relief attacks yesterday frofn the bridgehead north-east of Kerch.”