The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1943-11-13
Continued From Eage One)

door on Nazis defending Gomel,
the Red army killed 1000 more
Nazis and took many prisoners.
In one Rechitsa sector, the war
bulletin said, the Russians destroy.
ed Is Nazi tanks, SO field guns
II mortars and other equipment
The SOVIET airforce, operating in
conjunction with land forces, de.
strpyed several tanks, 20 f e d
guns, and 100 trucks carrying
troops and supplies.
In the Zhitomir thrust the Rus
SLAMS were only rs miles from the
pre-war Polish border.
Soviet forces were in position fol
a direct assault on Zhitomir. They
crossed the Teterev river yester
day and captured Radomysl, eight
miles farther up the river from
Korostyshev.
The Russians were making
steady progress toward Korosten
another rail junction northwest Of
Kiev. taking the town of Lyak
hovaya, 80 miles to the southeast
But progress was more favor.
able toward Zhitonir because the
Red army was already across the
river.
Zhitomir, founded in 1910, hao
a normal population Of $4,000 PEG.
pie and was an important grain
center of the Ukraine.
Soviet columns pushing toward
Berdichev on the rail line to War
attacks of infantry and tanks, the
war bulletin said.
The Russians, supported by new.
ly landed tanks, mopped up sew
eral more fortified Nazi strong
holds on the Kerch peninsula
where the town Of Kerch was re-
portedly being burned by the Ger
mans in the face of swift Soviet
thrusts across the straits from Ia
man.
The Moscow newspaper Pravda
said low-hanging, deep, cold fog
if the Straits of Kerch was a
great help in landing operations
which the Germans were counter
ing with sea forces and bombers.
Dozens of Russian ships, cross
ing from Taman every night, were
bringing up more men and sup
plies for the already firmly en-
trenched Red army men, Pravda
said.
Germans and Rumanians were
consolidated in the hills around
Kerch and pouring heavy fire in
to Russian ranks but the Soviet
artillery gradually was silencing
them. Both sides we're using
strong airforces but Russian Stor-
morciks and Black Sea filters held
the initiative.
The Germans reported a Rus
sian attempt to cross the Sivash
Sea on the north eastern Crimean
coast and said the Russians were
wiped out after close quartz r
fighting.
In an area southwest of Gomel
near Rechitsa, the Russians ex-
tended their bridgeheads on the
right bank of the Dnieper by cap
turing several populated places.
Moscow dispatches said the
drive was heading Tor the pictur-
esque White Russian city of Kali
inkovichi, key point on the Len
ingrad-Odessa railway. The town
is a junction also for the Gomel-
Poland railway and highly i'm.
portant to German plans.
The fighting was raging through
the soft, wet country of the Pri-
pet marshes. A Russian b a k
through was achieved Wednesday
after long bombardment by heavy
artillery softened up trenches and
fire points erected by the Nazis.
Heavy German reinforcements
furiously resisted the attack, the
Moscow government newspaper
Izvestia said.
The Russians already have tax
en- an important highway n d a
village southeast of Kalinkovichi,
dispatches said.
Unlike the Pripet marsh coun-
try, the terrain between Kiev and
Korostein is suitable for tanks. It's
low, rolling land includes some o.