SPLENDID HEADWAY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 December 1943, Page 3

SPLENDID HEADWAY

MADE BY THE RUSSIANS WEST OF KIEV

Much Territory Regained and New Ground Broken

POSITION OF GERMANS IN VITEBSK CRITICAL

SOVIET FORCES FIVE MILES SOUTH OF WHITE RUSSIA STRONGHOLD

LONDON, December 28

Exploiting their break through on a 50-mile front west of Kiev, the Russians have not only recovered much of the territory taken by the Germans in their five-week counter-offensive, but in some places have broken new ground. The Germans are desperately regrouping their panzer and other forces in an attempt to stem the Russian drive. Nearly 400 miles to the north, the position of the Germans at Vitebsk is rapidly becoming more and more critical. Soviet forces are not more than five miles distant from the city on the south and on the west they are within three or four miles of the main railway from Vitebsk to Polotsk. . ■ In 12 days’ fighting in the Vitebsk area the Russians on some sectors have advanced nearly 40 miles on a wide front, capturing about 1000 towns and villages, reports the British United Press Moscow correspondent. Bitter fighting followed the German disaster at Gorodok, when the enemy lost thousands of men. Hundreds of enemy troops who fled from the Gorodok debacle are being rounded up in the woods and swamps which abound in this area. The “Pravda” says the Red Army is advancing south of Nevel along roads strewn with German dead, abandoned arms and equipment, and in the remains of villages which the Germans fired as they fled. The Germans destroyed Gorodok before they retreated. Russian artillery is now shelling the Vitebsk-Polotsk railway.