DIRECT THREAT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 December 1943, Page 4

DIRECT THREAT

TO BACKBONE OF GERMAN DEFENCE SMASHING RED ARMY ONSLAUGHT EXTENDING & WIDENING WEST OF KIEV. ENEMY FALLING BACK WHEN ATTACKED. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day. 11.55 a.m.) LONDON. December 29. The British United Press Moscow correspondent declares that General Vatutin's great counteroffensive in the Jitomir region has become the biggest single offensive of the Russian War. The Red Army west of Kiev, is smashing forward along a front of 100 miles and is now directly threatening Jitomir, which, with Korosten, formed the backbone of German resistance. Advancing rapidly along the Jitomir Highway towards Jitomir, after the capture of Korostyshev, General Vatutin has already recovered practically all the territory the Russians lost within the Kiev salient during the German counter-offensive. A further great development is expected, because in every sector where the Russians are attacking, the Germans are moving back, leaving isolated garrisons to fight hopeless rearguard battles. That is what happened at Korostyshev. SOVIET COMMUNIQUE. Tonight’s Soviet communique states: ‘•Troops of the First Ukrainian Front developed their offensive and captured its railway junction of Korosten and also the railway station of Chernyakhov and the town and railway station of Skvira, as well as 250 other places. “The Red Army, westward of Zaporozhe, launched an offensive and captured over 30 localities, including a township at the approaches to Zaporozhe itself. Soviet forces also captured the island of Korpitsa, in the Dnieper. “The Russians north of Kirovograd repelled large infantry and tank attacks and inflicted heavy losses. “The Russians in the Vitebsk sector continued their offensive and occupied several inhabited places.”

“THUS ENDS 1943”

YEAR OF RUSSIAN VICTORIES. EVEN MORE DEVASTATING BLOWS TO COME. (Received This Day, 1.15 p.m.) LONDON, December 29. The Moscow radio tonight declared that General Vatutin’s advance on the Kiev salient is gathering momentum, that the German front south of Nevel has been torn asunder and that the troops of the First Baltic Front are marching irresistibly towards Vitebsk. “Thus ends 1943, which has been a year of victories,” says 'the radio. “Our military skill in 1944 will deliver even more decastating blows.”

GROWING WEAKER

GERMAN RESISTANCE IN UKRAINE AND WHITE RUSSIA (Received This Day, 12.40 p.m.) LONDON, December 29. Not a single member of the German garrison was left alive when the Russians broke into Korostyshev yesterday. German suicide squads who had stayed behind in the town were found with their ankles tied together with ropes to prevent their retreat. The Germans fought bitterly for Kprostyshev. The enemy concentrated his defences around an 800 feet high hill east of the town. When the hill was captured, trenches were found filled with dead. The hillside was dotted with smashed cannon and machine-guns. Korosten was taken after a typical encirclement squeeze. A British United Press correspondent says the enemy, over the 45 mile stretch between Korosten and Jitomir, is moving back with the apparent intention of using the railway embankment as a main defence line. ' More and more evidence turns up daily, along the Kiev salient front, of the German intention to hold the area for the winter if they could. Trenches, pillboxes, minefields’and dugouts constituting the German winter line stretch across the country. Their shattered remnants testify to the Red Army’s skill in holding the Germans’ counter-offensive and then breaking through themselves. Moscow correspondents say that the German front outside the Kiev salient appears to be definitely loosening and there is evidence from other sectors that the whole German defence is beginning to weaken. For instance, before Kirovograd, German counter-at-tacks during the last few days have been so feeble that artillery has been sufficient to halt them without using tanks. After Moscow had been silent for several days about operations in the Nevel area (at the northern end of the White Russia front) the German news agency’s commentator, Von Hammer, said the Germans, following on Russian infiltrations in the Nevel area, had withdrawn to shortened lines. The defensive battle in the Vitebsk-Nevel area yesterday continued with unabated fury, the enemy commentator added. The Russians brought up several fresh rifle divisions and armoured formations. Another news agency commentator, Hallensleben, said the German troops were letting the enemy’s offensive peter out by major evasive moves, thereby making up for their numerical inferiority.