KIEV BULGE BATTLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 December 1943, Page 4

KIEV BULGE BATTLE

NOT YET AT FINALITY

BUT GOING VERY BADLY FOR GERMANS.

NO RETURN FOR TREMENDOUS

LOSSES

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) (Received This Day, 11.35 a.m.) LONDON, December 17. The titanic battle of the Kiev bulge has not yet reached finality, judging from assessments by Moscow correspondents. “The Times” says indications are that between Malin and Radomysl the initiative is being wrested from the enemy’s tired hands. German attacks south of the Teterev River are assuming the character of a desperate attempt to shatter Russian plans tor massive counterblows.

The battle is now in a phase in which neither side can afford to disengage, and in which the Russians have the difficult task of launching a ’new offensive through Ijnes on which their men are still fighting mainly defensively, but General Vatutin can be relied on to bide his time until the enemy’s efforts falters. It is confidently believed in Moscow that the enemy’s tremendous losses of the past six weeks will cause his Kiev salient counterblows to break down. A Reuter correspondent says the latest news from the Kiev salient is satisfactory. German attacks in the past 24 hours got nowhere and the Red Army, for the second day in succession, improved its positions. Moscow correspondents reveal that the Red Army has used airborne sapper detachments to build concealed foads in forests behind the enemy’s lines. The sappers, without previous parachute experience, were dropped, with their tools, deep in the rear of the enemy forces, where they worked at tree felling and laying tracks for the future use of the army.