Imperial Valley press., 1943-09-27
Soviets Use Air
Troops to Insure
Early Kiev Fall
(Continued from page l.

(COnt1nueu lIOIl po6e
es the old frontiers and the Ger
mans are decisively beaten.
Rounding out IL weeks OF the
great summer offensive, the Red
ARM was entrencned along practi-
callv the entire east bank OF the
Dnieper and was battling to hurl
the Nazis out of their remaining
east bank positions before Kiev,
Kremenchug, Dniepropetrovsk ana
zaporozhe.
The Nazis were under constant
bombardment by the Red air force
which enjoyed unchallenged mas
terry of the skies over the battle
areas.
In the Kremenchug area between
Kiev and the river bend the Ger
mans were reported fleeing across
the Dnieper under merciless
pounding by Soviet assault planes.
There and before Kiev the Ger
man remnants were reported fight
ing bitter delaying actions to cover
the retreat to the west bank.
The battle of Dniepropetrovsk ap-
peared to have entered decisive
stage as the Russians smashed the
last belt of German defenses based
on the marshes thanking the ap-
proaches to the town. Bloody hand
to hand combats we're raging in the
eastern suburbs of the city.
On the plains southeast of zapo-
rozhe the Red army swept over
wide area, increasing the threat
to the Crimea.
Pravda, declaring that "the Dnie-
per is only temporary obstacle,
said the Red army had mastered
the technique of river crossing and
now can hurdle water barriers,
mine fields and iron and concrete
Notifications"
The Communist party organ, as
serting that the Soviet victory at
Smolensk had opened the gates to
the west, said the capture of the
city demonstrated that the Ger
mans cannot drag on the war and
avoid final defeat by the construc-
ton of elaborate defenses.
The Russians have benefited by
the marshy Gomel area a warm
spell enabled tt.~ Red armies to
negotiate usually impossible forest
regions and reach points within
% miles of Gomel. On the lower
reaches of the Dnieper Soviet forces
we're using the mists and fog to
accelerate their crossings.
A conservative estimate of Red
army achievements in the last IL
weeks showed that it had regained
almost as much territory as it did
in five months of the last winter
offensive. 1t has liberated about
$4,000 communities and roughly
$4,000 square miles-an area larg-
er than Germany proper.
Front dispatches said Soviet
thanking columns were pushing
across the river north and south of
Kiev, Russia's third largest city, in
the face of murderous German
artillery fire from the high west
bank, but there was no authoritative
indication that the Red army yet
had established bridgehead in
force.
Soviet troops striking frontally
were locked in bitter fighting with
the Germans in the muddy east
bank suurbs of Kiev The Germans
threw big infantry and tank forces
into battle in futile attempt to
stem the Soviet tide, only to be
thrown back. More than 800 Ger
mans were killed and five tanks
wrecked
The Russians also blasted their
way to the Dnieper at key points
along a 300-mile stretch from Kiev
to Zaporozhe. Near KremenchU2,
IS miles upstream from Dnepropet-
rovsk, the Russians smashed an en-
emy pocket of Resistance, captured
10 towns and villages and threw the
battered German remnants into
the Dnieper.
More than 800 enemy bodies re-
manned on the battlefield and in
addition a large number of Ger
mans drowned in the river" a
Soviet communique said. Fourteen
guns and many other arms thrown
away by the Germans during their
precipitate retreat were captured
by our troops
Near Dnepropetrovsk itself, the
Germans pivoted on defense line
consisting of concrete pillboxes and
artillery emplacementS and coun-
terattacked 10 times. The fighting
at times ragged at close quarters with
bayonets, rifle butts and grenadeS,
but the Germans finally were rout-
ed with the loss of 1000 men and
eight tanks.
North of Kiev, the Russians sur
ged toward White Russia and the
key bases of Vitebsk, Orsha and
Mogilev-the gateway settles to the
Polish border--on a 250-mile front
and at some points penetrated the
White Russian Republic for the
first time. s..
The White Russian. cities of
Khotimsk, "a miles northwest of
Bryansk, and Lenino, 30 miles
southeast of Gonlel, were overrun
along with 708 other towns and vii
lagos along the 250-mile front.
Front dispatches placed the Rus
slams roughly half way between
newly captured Smole and
Orsha, while other forces seized
Zlinka. 26 miles east of Gomel,
Kasplya, 81 miles east of Vitebsk,
and Monastyrschina, 66 mil e S
northeast of Mogilev. Nearly 5000
Germans we're killed on this front.
In the northwest Caucasus. the
Red army and marine narrowed the
German bridgehead across tn e