The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-12-28
Strategic Towns of Solo. netzky, Birukov Are
 Captured RUSSIANS ON MOVE DESPITE COLD WEATHER Germans Are Throw T Back Wherever Reds Contact Them
By N, S, HANDLER

United Press stan Correspondent,
 Moscow, Dec. 2S.-(UP)- Russian forces narrowed the gap today in a Secnd ring around 22 German divisions already trapped between the Volga and the Don and a Soviet communique reported new Red Army gains on five other sectors from Rxhev to the Caucasus,
 Front dispatches said Soviet troops had coupled the StrateGig towns of Solnet1lSy, 7S miles west 0i Stalingrad, and Rlrukov, several miles to the south, strengthening the pocket in which upward of Soos- 900 Axis troops were penned,
 In a night of bitter fighting. the Russians had pressed ahead on a1 sectors, battling in snow with tenn peratures ranging far below zero,
 SolonetRky, taken by the Russians as they tightened their wise around the Don-Volga pocket, is on the Chir River, several miles north of the Stalingrad-Kharkov railroad and ls miles west of Surovikino, Birukov Is lS miles south of Chernishevsky on the Khar&ov- StalingraG line and due south of Solonetzky,
 Second King
 V1Nl,a ~oAa,.ss ,,s,>r ,x.a,,,,.s &l,a s,.<sls et6 Germans started n miles north Of KotelnikovS&i between the Stal- incra6 ~TikhoretSk railroad and the Don,
 The Russians reached these posi- tions yesterday after driving the Germans back 24 to 30 miles in four days of vicious fighting. The cir cle swung northweStward across the Don through Chepurin to Barukov and northwar6 to So.onetzky, Then 1t followed the north-northweStern course of the Chir River until it hinged on Col. -Gen. N, F. vatutin's armies forging soUthward on the middle Don front.
 Soviet columns moving down the west bank Of the Don. southwest of Stalingra6, were advancing weSt- wand now. moving between the Stal- ingra0- Kharkov railroad and the southern arm of the Don. They cap tured vodyansky. 10 miles west of the river, and moved on to Biru- kov,
 Positions Recovered
 Southwest of Stalingra6. the Russ Sians recovered most of the advance Cd positions they had held prior to a fierce German counter-offenSire started Dec, l2, They advanced six to nine miles yesterday.
 These positions. situated some l& miles north of Kotelnikovski. con- siSt of Nishne- Yahlatchny. verchine- Yahlatchny and Nehikoy. forming & slight arc aeros sthe Stalingrad~ TikhoretSk railroad across the Steppes toward the volga, Red Army forces advanced beyond their former positions and took Shar- nutovSsy. IS miles southeast of Nebikov.
 The Russians consistently ham mere6 back German remnants in the socthwest-Stalingrad area while Vatutinls forces noppe6 up enemy groups ercir,led and hy-pasSe0 dur- ing his advance from the Don to the Voronezh. .Rcssov railroad. so Miles From Rost0v
 Radio reports reaching London said the Soviet armies now were within SO miles of Rostov and that at Stalingra6, the Russians had started a 6ay-and-night aerial of sensive against enemy air6r0nes. supply depots and troop concentra- tlonSl
 In the middle Don area they pressed into a small triangle the thousands of Germans east of the Rostov- -voronezh Moscow railroad and it was estimated that they nos had freed between 10000 and 12s~ 000 square miles of middle Don ter ritory. isoiating inside it hundreds of hopelessly trapped German de- tachments.
 In what appeared to be one o< the bitterest nights of fighting in tho