Evening star., 1943-02-19
Nazi Defenses
Broken 80 Miles
East Of 0re|
Mobile Red Units
Operating Behind
Breuched Lines
BY EDDY GILMORE,
Associated press Wor rorrae,a,d.n


Army, smashing defenses in Orel
Province, has captured Zale-
goshch, only 30 miles east of
Orel, on the railway from Yelets,
and several other unidentified
towns have been taken by highly
mobile Soviet troops operating 10
miles behind the broken front
line in this sector, the Russians
announced today.
Taganrog's lifeline was severed
northwest of Rostov with the Red
Armys capture of Matveev -Kurgan,
25 miles north of the Sea of Azov
port Gil the railroad to Gorlovka.
In the Western Caucasus the Red
Army continued to drive the Ger
mans huddled against the seacoast
toward the Taman Peninsula, where
escape across the Kerch Strait into
the Crlmea might sattempted.
Clamp Tightens in Donets.
The Russian clamp laid around
the Donets Basin increased the pres
sure en- the Germans, as numerous
settlements were captured in sectors
west of Novoshakhtinsk, southwest
of Voroshilovgrad, and in the
Kramatorsk area.
CT'he German high command
communique broadcast from
Berlin said the Russians main
tanned attacks on the Donets
front, in the area of Kharkov.
southeast of Orel, southeast of
Lake linen, south of Lake La
doga and near Leningrad, but
failed to gain. The Red Army
drives were variously declared to
have been repelled or ''frus-
trated." The communioue as
serted that German attacks south
Of Novorossisk, the last major
Caucasian port in the invaders
hands, gained further ground.D
Front line dispatches said that
west of Kharkov Soviet artillery
smashed German counterattacks
and mobile units dashed in to batter
at the fianks of the German troops
and speed the retreat.
The closest large city west of
Kharkoy is Poltava, which we'll may
be an objective. A city with
population of 100 900, it is "a miles
west of Kharkov, on the River
Vorskla, and is the center of Russia s
sugar territory. It also produces
great deal of flour.
Flee 70 Poltava.
1t was the scene of famous battles
with Swedish armies in 17O9, during
the reign of Peter I, a war which
started Russia on its path as a power
in Europe.
Remnants of the German Kharkov
garrison fed in the direction of
Poltava because it lies on the
Kharkov-Kiev railway and is the
only city of any size on the great
Ukrainian steppe. now dashed by
oltter wind and snowstorms, to
which the Germans could withdraw
In series OF Furnishing blows that
counted the enemy dead in the hun
dreds and brought the destruction
OF war material, the Russians said in
an early morning communique re-
corded by the Soviet monitor in
London that their troops had pushed
INTO the railway town and district
center Of zalegoshch, 30 miles east
OF Orel; Verkhnaya Sosna, 45 miles
southeast, and Pokovoskoye, 40 miles
southeast.
A Russian army long has been
poised northeast OF Orel in the Tula
sector, and columns have been previ-
ously reported forging northward
up the railway since the Red Army
reeaptured Kursk.
kuban Mop-up Continues.
Mopping up the Kuban country
west of recaptured Krasnodar, the
Russians announced the capture of
Starovelichkovskaya, 80 miles
northwest of Krasnodar: Smolen-
skaya, 20 miles south of Krasnodar.
and Seyrskaya, SO miles north of the
Black Sea port of Novorossisk, the
most important exit remaining for
the German units pinned against
the coast
Expanding their gains in the
Donets Basin in their effort to trap
the German army that lost Rostov
the Russians said that Red Army
forces had captured so towns and
villages west OF Novo Shakhtinsk,
took several towns and knocked ont
an enemy tank outfit southwest of
Voroshllovgrad, and advanced in
the kramatorsk sector, where the
(See RUSSIA. Page A-13l