The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-10-27

Russian tommy gtlnnerS rescued a column several kilometers long of thousands of old men, women and children being driven westward from Dnepropetrovsk by the Ger mans.
 A dispatch to 1zvestia said the column was trudging along the road when o young girl sighted the tom- my gunners and began to shout, Thousands took up the cry in a hysterical demonstration as the tommy gunners closed in and shot the German guards before they could intervene. The refugees re- turned to Dnepropetrovsk.
 The Russians liberated thousands of other civilians in their lightning advance. Some had been driven from their homes on the east bank on the Dnieper and boats and barg- es which brought troops and sup- plies to the right bank carried civ- ilians and their meager possessions on the return journey.
 The main park in Dnepropetrovsk was filled with trench graves. So- viet authorities dug up the bodies for examination in connection with the cataloguing of German war crimes. Inhabitants said 10000 Jews perished during the German occupation.
 Front Broken Up
 The German front inside the Dnieper bend now has been broken up into @ series of independent sec tors with the field commanders try ing to extricate their forces through the gap below Krivoi Rog as best they can.
 Red air force planes swept out ahead of the Soviet armored van guards below Dnepropetrovsk In the pnieuer bend and blasted and strat- ed enemy columns streaming soutn- westward in an attempt to reacn the Western Ukraine before the So.. yiet forces at Krivoi Rog can cut across their road of retreat.
 At least three railway trains ane more than i70 trucks loaded witr war supplies were destroyed yesterr. day by swarns of Russian assauA planes, fighters and bombers. :.
 The rapidity of the Russian ao vance appeared likely to proven the enemy from a successful starlt anywhere in the Dnieper valley ant observers wondered whether th' NaN command could halt the VIC torious Red Armies anywhere shor of the Bug river.
 Fall Imminent
 The fall of Krivoi Rog, iron, stee and communications center hal way across the Dnieper Bend, ap' peared imminent as the Russian' battered their way toward the cen ter of the city against mounting re- sistance.
 The Karnavatka Railway station largest in Krivoi Rog and one mil, north of the center of the city, fel yesterday. The Germans stepped Ill their armored counter attacks aftel bringing the 24th Panzer division from Italy, but nowhere were apl' to more than slow the pace of thu Russian advance. Nearly 5000 Ger man infantry have been killed 1T recent fighting.
 Inside the Dnieper Bulge. th' Russians captured Science, IS mile south of Dnepropetrovsk and 8 other towns and villages in thei pursuit of the fleeing Germans Here, too, all attempts by the Ger mans to hold immediate rear guarC lines failed.
 A Soviet communique revealed be- latedly that more than 1000 Ger mans were killed in the fighting fol Dnepropetrovsk and nearby Dnep' rodzerzhinsk.
 Across the southern arm of thu Dnieper Bend. the Russians fanneC out from Melitopol in a developing offensive against the Crimea.
 Twenty-eight localities were seized in advances of up to 12 Ia mile! north, west and southwest. Particularly heavy fighting rageC for Veselyoye, 9 mileE northwest of Mehtopol with the bodies o1 hundreds of enemy soldiers litter, ing the streets and approaches tG the town, while 5000 Germans werI ! killed in an adjacent sector.