Current Events February 7, 1943; RUSSIANS SWEEP TOWARD ROSTOV / ROMMEL'S LAST STAND NEAR / MODERATE LOSSES TO NAVY IN SOLOMONS:

          The Charleston Gazette

        Charleston, West Virginia. Sunday Morning, February 7, 1943.

Soviets Reach Sea Of Azov, Storm Rostov;

8^th Army Gains 60 Miles, Nearing Mareth;

Navy's Recent Loss 'Moderate,' Says Knox

Reeling Germans

May Desert City,

Reds Steel Ring Seals

200,000 Germans

In Caucasus

3 More Rail Towns

Seized in Ukraine

Bataisk Entry Confirmed;

New Crossing Forced .

On Donets River

MOSCOW, Feb. 6.—(INS)—

Soviet troops in the northwest Caucus today captured the keyjunction

of Bataisk to sweep to within five miles south of Rostov,

and simultaneously reached the Sea of Azov to occupy Yeisk

and complete a land trap around some 200,000 Nazis.

This was announced tonight in a

special communique which told also of the capture- of three important

railway towns in a scythe shaped sweep into the Ukraine that

neared Kharkov and threatened to close another trap behind an estimated

quarter million Nazis in the Rostov-Donets region.

On Feb. 6," said the special bulletin, recounting further Red

army gains of as much as 20 to 25 miles in a single day, "our troops

in the Ukraine, as a result of fierce fighting, captured the town and,

railway station of Lisichansk, the town and railway station of Barvenkovo

and the town and railway station of Balakleya.

Rommel Last Stand

Declared in Offing

Command of Eisenhower

Widened to Include

Middle East

America's New Duty

Helps Unity in Africa,

Anglo-French Force Yields!

Hill No. 648 as Foe

Counter-Attacks

ALLIED HEADQUARTERS IN

NORTH AFRICA, Feb. 6.—(INS) |

—The command of Lt. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower was ex-

panded tonight to include direction of all U. S. forces in the

Middle East, as well as the Allied forces in French Africa. j

This further step toward unification of the Allied command

throughout North Africa was announced following the disclosure

that German troops, counter-attacking, despite the return of. inclement

weather in upper Tunisia, had recaptured a height from the

British.

Japanese Claims

Denied by Davis

Says Sinking of 5 U. S.

Warships WAS Without

Foundation'

American Land Forces

Beyond Tassafaronga

No Major Solomons Battle,

Avers Knox—Aleutian

Clashes Revealed

WASHINGTON, Feb. 6.—(INS)

—Secretary of the Navy Knox today announced renewal of

Japanese air attacks on American positions in the western

Aleutian islands simultaneously with the continuing sea-air engagements

between U. S. and Japanese forces. in the Solomon

islands area.

Only "moderate losses," the naval secretary declared, have been sustained

by either the American or enemy surface and air fleets in the

series of actions which have been going on in the vicinity of Guadal-

canal for 10 days.