Evening star., 1943-12-11
Reds Press Advance
In Dnieper Bend Area,
Nazi Agency Admits
Farther North Soviets
Suffer Reverses in
Sector Around Kiev
BY The Associated Press.

LONDON, Dec. 11.-Gen. Ivan
Konev's I'd Ukrainian Army has
expanded its Cherkasy bridge
head in the great Dnieper bend
and has driven into Cherkasy
itself, where violent fighting is
taking place in the town." a
DNB broadcast said today.
To the southeast, the Germans
said, Soviet troops were making con-
tinuous attacks in heavy snow
storms in the area southwest of
Kremenchug, where the Soviets were
hammering at the approaches of
Krivoi Rog and Kirovograd.
Moscow admitted serious reverses,
however, in the Kiev bulge 200 miles
to the northwest, where massed Ger
man armor has driven Gen. Nikolai
Vatutin's forces back to the area
south of Malin, 30 miles east of
Korozen and only SIS miles west of
the great Ukranian capital. Ger
man capture of Malin, on the Kiev-
Korosten railway, would pose a diff
cult supply problem for Russian
forces reported still fighting near
Chernyahov, 80 miles west of Kiev.
Russians Take Znamenka.
The fall of Znamenka, central rail
junction for German supply in the
Dnieper bend, to Gen. Konev,s vet
erans after three days of fighting,
was announced last night. The Ger
mans had dug their tanks into the
ground and fought to the death,
front dispatches reported.
In an order of the day, Premier
Stain described the city as "a pow
erful strong point and IAN impor-
tant rail junction" More than 1900
Germans were killed, % tanks de-
stroyed and many prisoners were
taken in the final assault, the Mos
COW bulletin said.
The Russians did not halt at
Znamenka. Gen. Konev pushed one
column on to take the town OF
Khirovka. junction of the Kirovo-
grad and Smela rail lines few miles
to the northwest. Another column
raced south and seized Chabanovka,
so miles north of Krivoi Rog. and
Chechelevka, 10 miles further on.
Capture of DoIinovka, 20 miles
still further south. would effectively
outf1ank Krivoi Rog from the west.
German Position Threatened.
The Red Army advance was flow
ing inexorably along strategic rail
lines and appeared to be threatening
the entire German position in the
Dnieper bend, where railways pro-
vide the only dependable supply
routes.
The Khirovka column, dislodging
the Germans from II additional
towns, pushed on toward Kirovo-
grad, barely Is miles to the west.
The Germans were reported fleeing
in disorder, abandoning guns, trucks
and ammunition. and superior Rus
sian air strength kept the enemy
from landing reinforcements by air
transport, as they did at Stalingrad
and Orel.
Fighting in the Kiev bulge was re-
ported to be as bloody. Here Field
Marshal Fritz Won Mannstein was
blasting stubbornly away at Rus
sian defenses, using upward of 1000
tanks in his thrust toward Kiev
He has already advanced 80 miles
east from the Leningrad-Odessa
railway to outf1ank Chernyakhov,
but Gen. Vatutin has SO far avoided
a major German break through.
Destroy 81 Tanks.
Minor tank breaches in the Soviet
line have been successfully assimi-
lated, the Russian communique said,
with 90 enemy tanks being destroyed
in the past "a hours.
A dispatch from Henry C. Cassidy,
Moscow correspondent of the Asso-
ciated Press, said today that the
Russians have checked Marshal Won
Mannstein's assault from new de-
fensive positions.
Heavy SHOWS and billiards. were
reported sweeping other sectors of
the long front, holding up opera
tions in vast areas Berlin broad
casts told of big new Soviet Of
fensive in the Pripet-Berezina Sec
tor west of Gomel, in White Russia,
and referred to German successes
below Kerch, in the Crimea, but
Moscow made no mention of fight
ing in these sectors.