Evening star., 1943-04-03
Russia
Continued From First p

miles of their territory and cap
tured or destroyed 5000 German
planes, 9,l90 tanks and 2O36O guns.
The German high command
in a communlque recorded by
the Associated Press from the
Berlin radio declared the Ger
mans had launched their own
offensive south of Lake linen.
TN knee deep mud and breast
deep water our troops fought
eheir way to their objectives,
threw back an enemy group into
the swamp and destroyed it, the
cOmmunique said 1t claimed
the capture of 370 prisoners. the
killing of 1925 Russians and the
destruction of 26 tanks The
front elsewhere was quiet. the
communique said, except on the
Leningrad front south of Lake
Lagoda)
Red Star, printing its first full
page map, disclosed that Soviet
gains were greater in some places
than had been believed by OBJ
servers.
36 Miles From Smolensk.
Velizh. still held by the Germans.
is about so miles southeast of Velikie
Lukl. The Russians captured Velikie
Luki on the central front early in
the winter and then began enlarging
their gains southwark. Velizh is
only about As miles from Vitebsk
which is on the Smolensk-Riga rail-
way
The map showed the Russians
were only about 36 miles from
Smolensk at the nearest point where
they were just northeast of Yartsevo,
a rail station on the Moscow
Smolensk line
The Red Army also has closed in
on Orel. 200 miles south of Moscow
until it is only 30 miles east of that
key objective.
Both Orel and Smoiensk therefore
are almost within range of big Soviet
guns, while. Taganrog on the Sea of
Azov is well within range.
The map also showed that Kirisho,
50 miles southeast of Leningrad. is
virtually surrounded by the Rus
slams.
Swings Around Velikie Luki.
From there the line drops down
10 just east of Staraya Russa. south
of Lake linen, and then falls in
an almost straight line to Kholm.
thence southwest to a position about
10 miles west of Velikie Luki.
Swinging in an arc around Veil
kle Luki almost through Velizh. it
continues in southeasterly direc-
ton, to a point midway between
Vartsevo and Vyazma on the Mos
road and turns south
ward in the direction of Spas De-
menskoe, not quite reaching that
city 80 miles southeast of Smolensk.
The map shows that the Red Army
battle line takes in the city of Kirov,
then continues in a general south
easterly direction to Mtsensk, where
1t describes a gradual arc around
Orel-an arc of approximately 36
miles with Orel in the center.
The line then continues westward
to Sevsk, which is in German hands.
(The Germans asserted a week
ago that they had captured
Sevsk, about 80 miles northwest
of Kursk, and this appeared to
to be the first Russian admis-
sion they had lost the town.
Still Hold West of Donets.
From Sevsk the lines drop south
ward. running through Rylsk. some
25 miles west of Lgov. The line con-
tinues east of Sunny where it turns
sharply east to point slightly
north of Belgorod.
From the latter city the lines run
along the northern Donets River.
where the Russians still hold the
western bank in several sectors.
The front line then follows the
river some distance but turns SOUTH
ward IS miles west of Voroshilov-
grad, which is still held by the
Soviets.
From here the line goes south
to point Is miles north of Ger
man-occupied Taganrog, where it
arcs around that city. terminating
on the shores of the Sea of Azov.
In the Caucasus, the map shows
the lines swinging down from the
Sea of Azov at a point about II miles
east of Temryuk on the Taman
Peninsula to the gates of Novoros-
sisk.
War bonds make bombers to bomb