Evening star., 1943-01-21
German Efforts to
Stabilize Line
Are Thwurted
BY HENRY c. CASSIDY,
Associated Press War CORRESPONDENT,

NA@SNSAHNSA ASoo w "a correspondent
MOSCOW, Jan. 21.-Russian
shock troops were reported pour
ing westward across the Manych
River today, Is miles from the
rail junction of Salsk, in the
drive to isolate the Axis army of
the Caucasus and clamp an arc
of steel about Rostov.
Feverish German efforts to fix q
stable line along the left bank OF
the Manych, placid, lake-fed
stream which flows into the Don 30
miles east of Rostov, are failing
field dispatches said.
Red Star announced that Soviet
detachments were capturing point
after point while the Germans were
blowing up bridges and trying to
lay more mines in rapid retreat
They already have been driven from
a number of positions on the Salsk
side of the Manych, it said.
Continue Westward Move.
There and elsewhere on the long
front the Russians were declared
continuing their westward move In
the 10th week of their winter Of
fensive, with Rostov, the steel city
OF Kharkov, the industrially impor-
tant Donets Basin center of Voro.
shilovgrad and the Maikop oil fields
OF the Caucasus among their OBJ
jectives.
CThe German communique said
there was continuous hard fight
ing south OF Lake Ladoga," where
the Russians are battling to widen
their supply corridor to Lenin-
grad. Without a reference to
specific gains or losses, the COM
munique said that Axis shock
troops were successfully en-
ployed" in local combat on the
central front and south of Lake
linen.
(The German command de-
clared the Russians were re-
pulsed during continued violent
assaults along southern sectors
and had lost So armored cars
during one 48-hour period this
week. Trapped troops at Stalin-
grad were reported to have stood
firmly against mass assaults.
c""BetWeen January IL and 40,
804 Soviet tanks were destroyed,
captured or rendered unseryice- j.
able on the eastern front by de-
tachments of the army" the COM
munique said)
With q northern army reported 79
miles east of Kharkov, at Urazova, q
southern force swept II miles west
ward to capture Byelokurakina, lis
miles southeast of Kharkov, a spe-
cial Russian communique said last
night.
Deep Penetration.
These two troop bodies threatened
to form the pincers to clamp onto
Kharkov. The troops who had
reached Byelokurakina had accom-
plished actually the deepest penetra-
ton Of the Ukraine Republic since
the Russians were forced to retreat
in this region by the Germans 1942
summer offensive.
Byelokurakina Is about SO miles
inside the Ukrainian border, South
OF that area, the special communique
said, Red Army troops also moved
into Byelovodsk, district center 4s
miles above Voroshilovgrad.
"a Soviet communique broad
cast from Moscow about mid
night and recorded by the So
Wet Monitor in London, said the
Russian forces also occupied the
four big populated places of Dam
ilovka. Gorodishche, Bolshaya-
Ghernigovka and Mityakinskaya,
and the railway station Of Che
botovka.
(The latter two places are lit
tie more than 20 miles east of
Voroshilovgrad and apparently
were taken by forces which
moved down the railroad from
Millerovo to the northwest.
(The pincers action threatened
(See RUSSIA, Page A-l8)