MAJOR THRUSTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 December 1943, Page 3

MAJOR THRUSTS

NOW BEING DEVELOPED BY RUSSIANS ON HARDENING GROUND OPERATIONS IN SOUTH & NORTH (British Official Wireless.) RJUGBY, December 27. It is considered that the Russians would probably not have resumed the offensive on the Kiev-Zhitomir front unless the ground had hardened sufficiently to become favourable for opening the winter campaign. ■ Thus on the two most vital sectors of the front, on either side of the barrier of the Pripet Marshes, the Russians are engaged in a major offensive. In the north they are striking at a point where success would bring dislocation to the German front northward to Leningrad and southward along the upper Dnieper. A further advance west and south-west of Kiev would have farreaching effects on the Dnieper position.

Using excellent communications which they have secured east of the Dnieper, the Russians are taking advantage of the virtual division of the German front into two by the Pripet Marshes, where the communications are scanty. In the north Vitebsk is not only outflanked, but its main communication with the rear is cut.

IN GRAVE DANGER GERMANS IN VITEBSK AND IN THE KIEV SALIENT. EFFECT OF ENTERPRISING SOVIET THRUSTS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 10.55 a.m.) LONDON, December 288. The German armies, both before Vitebsk and the Kiev salient, are in an extremely dangerous position. The enemy’s situation has deteriorated in the last 36 hours, says the British United Press Moscow correspondent. At Vitebsk especially the German position is becoming more desperate hourly. The German commander at Vitebsk failed t.o take necessary measures against encirclement, and if General Bagramyan’s latest thrust south-east of the city cuts the railway to Orsha, the enemy will have to pull out or stand and fight with Russian, forces around him on three sides. Reuter’s correspondent says the fate of the Vitebsk garrison appears hopeless. Mobile Russian forces, after cutting the vital railway to Polotsk, are now thrusting south to complete the town’s encirclement and isolation. Both the remaining escape routes—the road to Minsk and the railway to Orsha—are in imminent danger of being cut. With Ukrainian Army groups within 10 and 11 miles of Jitomir and Berdichcv .respectively, the Red Army’s columns, advancing south-west of Fastov, which was captured a few days after Kiev, have advanced well beyond the points they reached in the original November drive. Detailing the situation on the Kiev front, the British United Press correspondent says General Vatutin’s break through along the Kiev-Jitomir highway has thrown the Germans completely off balance. The enemy is now only staging' local counter-attacks in this area, while his main forces are desperately trying to disengage from the advancing Russians and to reform in positions several miles back.