FOLLOWED UP QUICKLY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 December 1943, Page 3

FOLLOWED UP QUICKLY

RED ARMY BREAK THROUGH IN WHITE RUSSIA

Immensely Formidable German Defences Smashed i _____ SOVIET SPEARHEAD LESS THAN SIXTY MILES FROM LATVIAN BORDER VITEBSK OUTFLANKED AND THREATENED IN REAR LONDON, December 20, The Red Army is quickly following’ up its break through on the front between Nevel and Vitebsk. One Russian spearhead is reported to be less than 60 miles from the border of Latvia. Another column is well to the west of Vitebsk and threatens to cut oft’ the garrison of that German fortress from the rear. The military commentator of the German news agency states that the Russians are also making a strong attack on Vitebsk from the east. The huge breach driven into the enemy’s defences by the Russians threatens to,roll up the entire Leningrad line and also endangers the German supply system to the forces further south, on the Kiev front. Mr Paul Winterton, Moscow correspondent of the London “News-Chronicle,” says the early success gained by the Russians is all the more remarkable because they had to make a frontal attack on one of the strongest defence systems on the front. These defences were terrific. They comprised a complicated system of fortifications, which stretched back for miles. It took the Russians the best part of a week of bitter fighting to break through. The men had to haul their guns through the mud and carry their own food and shells with them. Each day they had to beat off anything from, 10 to 15 counter-attacks. In South Russia, the Russians are also gaining ground. According to an enemy report, the Germans have evacuated their bridgehead and on the east bank of the Dnieper opposite Kherson. This news is not yet confirmed from Moscow, but if it is true the Germans have now everywhere been cleared from the east bank of the Dnieper except at their bridgehead opposite Nikopol, on the south side of the Dnieper bend.