The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1943-12-30
The War On
Many Fronts

orltAsn Doulc> reyir TED Berlin with
more than 2,240 tons Of high ex-
plosiyes and fire tomhs last night
in thunderous climax to a day and
night Of spreading military and
naval disaster that rocked Ger
many's armed forces all the way
from the Bay Of Biscay to Russia's
western Ukraine.
On the frozen Russian front,
broken German armies in disorder
toward the Polish and Rumanian
frontiers before a fast-rolling Red
army offensive that cracked their
defenses wide open along a 1OO-mile
line west Of Kiev.
In Italy, Canadian troops swarmed
through the torn Adriatic flank Of
the German winter line above Or
tona, while strong fleets of Amer
lean flying fortresses hammered the
enemy-held transport centers of
Rimini and Ferrara.
And Berlin adm tied that furious
air-sea battle still ragged late last
night on the western sea approaches
to France, where three Nad destroy
ers and blockade runner already had
gone down under British bombs and
Shellfire.
800 Planes
Upwards of 8C0 of the RATS big
gest hombers brought the methodic-
al campaign to oblite~ate Berlin al
most to the halfway mark in last
nights assault, setting hundreds of
fires in the devastated city.
1t was the first raid on the cap
ital since last Thursday morning
and boosted the total tonnage heap
ed on Berlin since the current
knockout offensive started on Nov.
l8 to more than 10000 tons. Auth
oriative estimates had indicated that
l. maximum of 10000 tons of bombs
would be needed TO erase Berlin
rom the map.
The London evening news said
'latly that 1t had been estimated
that half of Berlin had been dealt
With"
Radio Berlin denounced the raid
aS q terror attack and claimed
the British had dumped their bombs
Unfortunately on densely-populated
residential areas, apparently prepar-
ing the German public for heavy
casualty lists.
Reports from the Russian battle
front said German troops were in
full retreat westward from the Kiev
Salient, under increasingly-heavy
attack from Gen. Nikolai F. Vatu-
tins LIST Ukranian army.
General Advance
The Russian reports, already "a
hours old. said Soviet armored col
umns swept up more than $50 towns
and villages in a general advance
that carried their forward elements
to within 40 miles of the old Polish
fronSier and only twice that dis
tance from the Rumanian border.
One wing of Vatutin's army
knocked out the northern prop of
the German defenses with the cap
ture of Korosten, an important five
way railroad junction IS miles
west of Kiev, and cleared a 32-mile
section Of the OdeSSa-Leningrad
railway below Korosten. Driving on
in pursuit of the beaten enemy,
Vatutins' mechanical columns cap
tured German strdAg points IL
miles southwest and six miles
northwest Of the junction town.
A second Russian force at the
southwestern end of the Kiev
salient seized Belopole, nine miles
north of Kazatin and only SO miles
from the Rumanian frontier, while
a third column struck out in the
center to capture Leskov, six miles
east of the Zhitomir railroad juno
ton.
Russia's LIST Baltic AMY con-
tinued its steady encirclement of
Vitebsk, on the White Russian
front, and Moscow reported that
still a third winter offensive had
been launched in the Dnieper Bend.
Third Army
In the latter area, the 3rd
Ukranian army burst suddenly
across the Dnieper river, hurled
the Germans from 15-mile stretch
of the west bank and massed for
an assault against Krivoi Rog and
NlhOpO4, kcySIU1lcS VI tllC CAACAtAy
position in the Bend.
Canadian troops in Italy moved
northward through enemy nine
fields toward Poscara, advancing a.
mile beyond the ruins of Ortona,
where they had defeated the Ger
mans in one of the bloodiest bat
ties Of the campaign. There were
no late reports on the progress of
American and Frnech forces in CEN
trail Italy, but field dispatches in
dicated that American patrols had
reached the outskirts of San Wit
tore, key to the inland Rome road.
In the wake o. the destruction
of the 26000-ton German battle
ship Scharnhorst, London reported
that British warships and Ameri-
can and Allied planes sank three
enemy destroyers and q blockade
runner in the approaches to the
Bay OF Biscay Morday and Tues
day. Berlin said the battle con-
tinued late last night and claimed
that five British destroyers had
been sunk by U-boats. Neutral
sernfts. meanwhile, said Nazj Er,N,af
Admiral Karl Doenitz had been
forced to resign in disgrace over
the loss Of the Scharnhorst.