The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-03-16
Red Drive Seals Fate

Continued from Page lD tack on "Rumanian brigands" for alleged atrocities against the Rus- Sians, charging that they were car ried out by order of the Rumanian supreme command.
 Slave 1ab:
 The same lot of slave labor, hunger and disease said to be tak- ing of hundreds of Russian prison- CTS working in Rumania was im- posed by the Rumanians on Allied airmen who fell Into Rumanian hands after the bombing of the Ploesti oil fields, the official journal said
 After forcing the Bug, the second Ukrainlan army raced on another 20 miles to the approaches of tho Dniester.
 Tho advance penetrated to with in nine miles of the Odessa -Lwow railway lifeline for German forces in the southwest Ukraine on Q 45- mile front, enabling Soviet artillery to paralyze all movement of troops and supplies along the middle reaches of the trunk line.
 Russian sources predicted the breakthrough, one of the most dc. cisive of the war, will force the Ger. man command to give tho long.de- layed order for withdraway from the entire southern Ukraine, from the approaches to Poland to the Black sea.
 With the loss of the south bank Of the Bug river, the Germans have no natural defense line above tho Dniestcr river on the border of Bes- sorabia, A series of Russian victor les, including the capture of Vin- nitsa, Nikolaev and perhaps even the Black sea naval base of Odessa, appeared in the ofiing,
 Retreat a ROnt
 The Soviet high command an. nounced In It's midnight communlque that the German retreat southwest of the Bug had reached the stage where fleeing enemy troops were abandoning even machine-gunS, rifles and other light equipment in addition to heavy arlnor and artil. lery.
 At one railway station, the Rus slams captured troop trains loaded with men and ammunition. Prison- CTS were being counted in the thous- Rnds.
 Konevs men forced the Bug ie boats, on pontoons and even op blanks of wood under cover of 0 heavy artillery harragc, then storm ed trenches, dugouts, pNlboxes and barEed wire fences on the south bank long prepared by the Germans.
 The enemy rushed up tanks and self propelled guns for desperate counter-attacks inoan effort to hurl the SovIets back across the river. but the Russian Vanguards held un- til achievements joined them in Q mighty blow that sent the enemy recllng back to the southwest,
 oil Fields
 Advancing without pause, the Rus slams drove on another l3 to 20 miles to within 250 miles Of Ru- mania's Ploesti oil fields. Among the more than 100 towns and vil- lages swept up iiY the advance were Bandurovka, go miles northeast of Bessarabia or old Rumanie; Say intsy, LevEov and Tsybulevka, all nine miles from the Odessa Warsaw railway. md Olgopol, 90 miles from Bessarabia and i26 miles north Of Odessa.
 The Soviet drive also probably sounded the doom of zhmerinka and Vinnitsa, German strongholds to the northwest since the garrisons there have been dependent on the threatened section of the odessa Warsaw line for supplies and re- Inducements.
 More than 30 towns and villages on the approaches to the two towns were captured yesterday by forces making up KoncV's western oclufnn, including PIsarevka, six miles south castof Vinnitsa, md Pilava, l7 miles east of zhmerinka,
 Southeast of the new break through, Gen. Rodion Y. MalInovs. ky's 3rd Ukralnlan army split the encircled German pocket above Emerson and killed thousands more of the enemy In the gradual ami. hilation of the trapped divisions.
 Abandoned Material
 Everywhere abandoned German tanks, guns and machine-guns were secn," the Soviet communique said.
 More than 50 towns and villages were captured as the Russians drew their moose tighter.
 Malinovskys men also pushed closer to Nikolaev on Q wide arc, capturing towns IS miles southeast, 28 miles south and 27 miles north. One Soviet column moving along tho northern bank Of the Dnicper inlet was only four miles from the mouth of the Bug river.
 At the opposite end of the 800. milo Ukrainian front, Marshal Gre- gory K. Zhukov's ist UkrairIan army killed more than 1900 Ger mans and destroyed co tanks in beating of intensified enemy coun- ter-attacks near ProSkuroV,