The Wilmington morning star., 1944-07-13
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1000 ENEMY KILLED
q : Mile Advance Made {;
1000 Places Taken
In Two Days

have broken through German
defenses between Polotsk
and Pskov on a new front SO
miles wide and captured more
than 1000 places in a two
day advance of at least %
miles, Premier Stain an
nounced last night, intensity
ing the threat of disaster for
all Nazi forces in the Battles
More than 1000 Germans were
killed and some 1,5o0 taken pri-
soner in single days fighting on
the new front, the early morning
supplement to the Soviet communi.
que said, as Gen Andrei I. Yere-
menko's second Baltic army be-
gan battering the enemy loose
from one of the last Nazi footholds
on pre-war Soviet soil.
Other Soviet armies to the south
pounded nearer East Prussia
reaching within 40 miles, some
London morning papers quoted a
German broadcast as saying -and
it was considered possible that
the Reds might be fighting On the
Reich's own territory by the end
of the week.
In special order of the day
Stain said the new offensive was
launched today west and no-th1
west of Novosokolniki and had cap
tured the important railway juno
ton of Iditsa, % miles east of
the Latvain border, as well as
other large towns and railway
stations in the area.
The Moscow radio and press dis
patches to British papers subse-
quently reported tina THE drive had
penetrated westward as much as
80 miles against fierce resistance.
The Moscow communique supple
ment said the ten counterattacks
by reinforced German divisions
werel repulsed as the Soviet fore
es Smashed toward Latvia.
The German position on the
whole 500-mile from became so
patiently hopeless that the Berlin
radio began preparing the people
for a largescale withdrawal.
1T is obvious" said Berlin
military spokesman in a broad
cast THAT the front cannot re-
main as it is. There are two al
ternatives one is large-scale
comprehensive mad the other the
adoption of the entire front to
new lines. Since we are on the de-
fensive in the East, the second
alternative is the one to be ap-
Piled"
In less than three weeks of the
mighty Soviet summer offensive
Red troops already had smashed
the Germans back beyond the pre-
war Russian frontier all the way
from the Pripyat marshes north
to the vicinity of the Latvian Dor
der, and the new assault extend
ed this campaign into the stretch
of land to which the Nazis have
chung north and south of Pskov.
1dritsa, at the junction of Sec
ondary rail lines running both
north1south and east-west, is 105
miles south of Pskov and SO miles
north of Polotsk.
The disclosure that Yeremenko
was in command of the second
Baltic army uncovered another
shift in the leadership of the Red
armies made before the launching
of the summer offensive.
He last had been mentioned by
Moscow as the commander of the
independent maritime army which
spearheaded the Russian drive all
the way across the Crimea from
Ke-ch. However, he missed the
triumphant conclusion of the cam
paign at Sevastopol, whose cap
ture was accomplished by Gen.
Feodor I. ~Tolbukhin.
After finishing his role in the
Crimean campaign, Yeremenko re-
placed Gen. Kyrill A. Meretskov,
who was transferred from the Sec
ond Baltic army to the Karelian
front, where he now is in COM
mand of Red t-ops smashing the
Films back from the region of
Lakes Ladoga and Onezhskoye.
Apart from its obvious purpose
Of trying to prevent the Germans
escape from the Baltic states, the
Yeremenko offensive may presage
the imminent Coup de Grace to
Finland.
The second Baltic army's posi-
ton laid open Daugapils to d.
rect assault and this big commu-
nications center in Southern Latvia
already was outflinked on the
south by Bagramian.