FURTHER HEADWAY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 December 1943, Page 4

FURTHER HEADWAY

MADE BY RUSSIANS IN DRIVE ON VITEBSK. HEAVY ENEMY CASUALTIES IN OTHER AREAS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.45 p.m.) LONDON, December 22. The Russians are menacing Gorodck, the last big railway town before Vitebsk, and are engaged in violent battles on either side of the main road and railway from Nevel to Vitebsk, says the “Times” Moscow correspondent. The Russian right wing simultaneously is descending through valleys. They are thrusting towards the German communications connecting the most northerly White Russian fortress city with the vital base of Pclctsk. The right wing has succeeded in pinning down a substantial part of the Germans in this region. The Germans are fiercely attacking south-east of Kirovgrad and Krivoi Rog. They are bringing up considerable tank and infantry reinforcements from other sectors, but, according to the “Izvestia,” in three days’ fighting they have achieved nothing. A German mews agency spokesman said: “The Russian Winter Army has come into the open. It comprises strategical reserves. The Germans have also thrown in reserves. The only difference between the two is that the Russians call theirs the Winter Army. The German-controlled Scandinavian Telegraph Bureau says the Germans may soon abandon Nikopol, their southernmost stronghold ’in the Dnieper bend. Tonight’s Russian communique says the Russians south of Nevel advanced and occupied over 20 inhabited localities. The Red Army south-west of Jlobin repelled counter-attacks and caused heavy enemy casualties. The Russians in the Korosten area repelled counter-attacks and improved their positions. The Red Army south-east of Kirovgrad repelled counter-attacks and inflicted many losses A front line dispatch states that the Germans lost 45 tanks south-west of Jlobin, and that another 60 were accounted for in an enemy attack in the Korosten area, in which the Russians held their positions and improved them in a sharp counter-blow.