Red armies in the Dnieper bend' have invested Krivoi Rog from three sides, apparently sealing the doom of the big mining center, and have encircled a big: German force in its environs,' front dispatches said today.
The Germans hurled hundreds of tanks and planes into a desperate battle to- save Krivoi Rog, northern prop of the, escape gap,through, which upwards of-. 500,000 fleeing axis troops in the' Dnieper bulge hoped to reach safety.
The allied Fifth and Eighth armies slogged ahead up to five miles
yesterday, seizing four Italian towns in the mass movement against the
new German defense line, on which the biggest battle to be fought in
Italy appeared to be shaping up,
indicated today.
San Mateo Times
SAN MATEO, CALIFORNIA, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1943
RUSS DNIEPER TRAP CLOSING
May Catch Half Million Nazis;
Clark Facing New German Line
ALLIES GAIN IN ITALY;
EXPERTS THINK HITLER
MAPS NEW GAMBLE
MOSCOW, Oct. 27.—(U.P)—
Red armies in the Dnieper bend' have invested Krivoi Rog from three sides, apparently sealing the doom of the big mining center, and have encircled a big: German force in its environs,' front dispatches said today.
The Germans hurled hundreds of tanks and planes into a desperate battle to- save Krivoi Rog, northern prop of the, escape gap,through, wh!ch upwards of-. 500,000 fleeing axis troops in the' Dnieper bulge hoped to reach safetty.
Elastic Defense
(Possibly preparing the German public for the loss of Krivoi Rog, the official German news agency DNB said the "ever-recurring 'elastic defense' of the German command" would frustrate the Soviet attack.)
Battling their way through the streets of Krivoi Rog, which lies half way across the Dnieper bend, the Russians captured all suburban railway stations and cut all railway lines except a southern spur line^-
The army organ Red Star said' the German command was sending fleets of transport planes through, a Russian aerial gantlet to parahute gasoline drums and supplies to the encircled forces in Krivl Rog's
outskirts.
Like Stalingrad
At the same time, groups of 50 to 70 .bombers bombed and strafed narrow sectors of the encircling
Russian line in an effort to ease pressure against the trapped Germans.
These tactics were reminiscent of the abortive German attempt to rescue their encircled army of
340,000 at Stalingrad. The size of the. force encircled at Krivoi Rog was not given in front reports, but was
believed to be considerably smaller. There was no confirmation that Krivoi Rog itself had yet been encircled.
ALLIED HEADQUARTERS,
Algiers, Oct. 27.—(U.P)—
The allied Fifth and Eighth armies slogged ahead up to five miles yesterday, seizing four Italian towns in the mass movement against the new German defense line, on which the biggest battle to be fought in Italy appeared to be shaping up,
German opposition ranged from very tough to"extremely_light_as. the contesting'ar'mies jockeyed for position preliminary to what may be the showdown battle for Rome along the strongest natural defense
position south of the Italian capital.
Montanaro Taken
Americans of Lieut. Gen. Mark W. Clark's Fifth army struck up from Francoilise to seize Montanaro,
on high ground to the north. The British Eighth army won Civita Campomarano, Tavenna, and Acquavivb Collorce in the center and northeastern sectors of the line.
The hardest fighting was reported in the sector of the Eighth army-----
JAP'S PLANES DRIVEN
FROM SOLOMON SKIES
ALLIED HEADQUAETERS, Southwest Pacific, Oct. 27.—
(U.P)—
Japanese air power has been driven at least temporarily from the Northern Solomons by a sustained aerial bombardment that blasted out of action the enemy's three main air fields on Bougainville island, front reports
indicated today.
Fields Attacked
Some 230 Allied warplanes dropped 130 tons of bombs on the Kahili and Kara airdromes on Southern Bougainville Saturday, setting bijj fires and blowing up
ammunition stores in a follow-up to Friday's 170-ton attack on those fields.
The raiders struck each base twice, encountering only weak antiaircraft fire and not a single Japanese fighter, despite the fact that the two strips, together with then nearby Ballale airdrome, had been the main centers of enemy air strength in the Northern Solomons.
No Fighters
The failure of any lighters to intercept from Ballale suggested that the field, too, had been knocked out by the recent Allied raids.
The Kahili and Kara bases were "fields of craters" when the bombers completed their latest attack, a
United Press dispatch from Adm. William F. Kalsey's South Pacific headquarters said.
Other Allied planes, according to the regular communique, hammered enemy coastal shipping and barges around Northern Bougainville and Shoiseu'l islands and shore positions in the New Britain area, while light naval units presumably PT boats, destroyed two Japanese barges in the Vitiaz straits between New Britain and New Guinea.
Positions Bombed
Mitchell medium bombers spearheaded the Allied attack on New Guinea Sunday, ripping tip the
Alexishafen airdrome 20 miles north of Madang on the northeast coast. The bombers set fires raging
in the dispersal and supply dump areas and silenced five antiaircraft batteries.
Japanese positions in the jungles northwest of Finschhafen, 165 miles south of Madang, also were bombed and strafed heavily, but there was no word of further ground fighting in that area.
Seven enemy planes tombed Allied positions south of Finschhafen with "negligible effect."
No comments:
Post a Comment