Evening star., 1943-01-17
Reds Kill 14O> 900 Trapped Nazis
At Sta|ingrad> Begin hopping Up
Rest After Refusal to Surrender
Fifth Offensive
Of Winter Started
Below Voronezh
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press
LONDON, Jan. 16.-The Red
Army has broken through the
defenses of the starving, freezing
Germans at Stalingrad, who re-
jected Russian ultimatum to
surrender, and is rapidly mop
ping up the 10000 to 10000
troops left of force which once
numbered 100000 men, a special
Moscow communique said to-
night.
In seven-day battle of annihila-
ton which began January 10 after
the Germans had rejected the ulti-
matum, the Germans have lost 25,-
600 in dead and their total force has
been cut to the 10000 or 10000 total
the announcement, heard here by
the Soviet Monitor, said.
Pressing closer their iron girdle
about the trapped force which total
ed % divisions at the beginning of
the encirclement on November 10,
the Russians said they had captured
30 important strongpoints, villages,
towns and railroad stations and ad-
vanced from IL to % miles.
Among the captured strongpoints
was Marinovka, 80 miles west of
Stalingrad on the railroad that runs
to the Don River.
Control of Most of Line.
The capture of two other places on
the railroad, Basargino, II miles
west of Stalingrad, and Karpovs-
kaya, a bit farther west, appeared to
give the Russians control of all or
most of the line running to Kalach
on the bank of the Don.
The development of this offen-
sive to liquidate the German pocket
at Stalingrad was told in the sec
ond of two special communiques
read from the Moscow radio to-
night.
The first told of the opening of
another offensive, the fifth major
drive of the winter, along the Upper
Don in the direction of Kharkov,
the vital Ukraine metropolis.
Striking out from just below the
Voroalezh hinge on the Don, the
Russians said they had chalked up
advances of 80 to Sc miles and
captured 600 town and villages, in
cluding one 120 miles northeast Of
Kharkov.
Rossosh Also Taken.
Rossosh, 80 miles below Voronezh
on the Moscow-Rostov railroad, also
was captured, and the communique
said the three-day offensive had re-
suited in 1900 of the enemy cap
tured and $4,000 killed.
The regular midnight communi-
que which followed these announce
ments said the Russian forces were
continuing to roll forward in the
Northern Caucasus, the Northern
Donets, and below the Don in the
zimovniki sector toward Rostov. :
In the latter zone, this anounce-
ment said, TOO Nazi Elite Guards of
the Viking division were killed in
fighting for the railway station of
Dvoinaya, 10 miles southwest of
Kuberle on the Stalingrad- Tx
horetsk Railway.
The Germans retreated without
having time to blow up munitions
and food stores which been mined 3"
the communique said. Twenty rail-
way engines were captured.
1,500 Dying Daily.
The second communique said the
Germans trapped at Stalingrad were
dying OF exhaustion, starvation and
freezing, with 500 dying from the
cold every day and 1000 from other
causes.
THE liquidation of the German
Fascist troops encircled in the Stall
ingrad area is drawing to close, "
the communique declared.
(The German military CORE
spondent, Capt. Ludwig Sar-
torius, in Berlin broadcast said
German high commands an
nouncement that its Stalingrad
troops were defending themselves
(See RUSSIAN, Page AID