The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1944-01-15
REDS TAKE 20
TOWNS and SET
GERMAN TRAP
BY HENRY SHAPIRO
United Press Staff Correspondent

United Press Staff Correspondent
Moscow, January Is. -
(UP) - Russian armOred
shock troops swept more
than 20 miles through the
Pripet marshes beyond cap
tured Mozyr today, wiping
out the remnants of the flee
ing garrison and setting a
trap for thousands of addi-
tional Germans.
Marshal KonStantin K.
RokoSsovSky sent one column
of his White Russian forces
rolling west along the Mozyr-
PinSk highway, another surg
ing along the parallel Kalinkovichi-
Pinsk railway and a third tanning
out southwest toward a junction
with the first Ukrainian army that
would encircle perhaps tens Of
thousands Of the enemy.
Both MoZyr and Kalinkovichi,
the latter six miles to the north,
were captured by Rokossovsky yes
terday and his cavalry and ski pa
trolls, striking deep into the enemy
rear, killed nearly all of the Ger
man survivors who had escaped
from the twin cities at the gateway
to the Pinsk corridor through the
Pripet Marshes.
Pressing on in hot pursuit, RokoS-
Eovsky's main forces seized Skry-
galovo, 20 miles southwest of Mozr
on the highway to Pinsk. Kotsury
Is miles west of Kalinkovichi on
the Ciomel-Pinsk railway, and 40
Dther towns and villages in light
ping blows that pulverized the last
enemy strongholds in southern
White Russia.
While. the White Russian spear
BEADS smashed to within lis miles
east of Pinsk at Skrygalovo, Gen
0ral Nikolai r. Vatutin's First Uk-
SAinian Army pushed up the Sarny-
Pinsk railway to within 40 miles OF
the regional center from the south,
gradually tightening moose around
enemy forces houndering through
the rlarshes.
Front dispatches said Russian
patrols and guerillas, in daring
night raids, we're Staying Germans
by the hundreds in the boys and
WOODS of the marshlands. Hundreds
Of others drowned as they sought
escape across thinly iced boys
IA he ~
grad. broke one of the f1ercest knots
Of German resistance at Gorbo-
vichI, nine miles northwest Of Ka-
linkcWichi, junction OF the Comet
Pinsk and Zhlobin- Berdichev rail-
ways, in fierce battle. Nearly g.
900 Germans were killed and ~
tanks and more than 40 guns des-
troyed. Eleven tanks. 20 guns and
other booty were captured.
Vatutin continued his uilinter-
rupted advance west OF Sarny and.
rolling 20 miles to the southwest,
captured Stepan, 40 miles inside the
old Polish border, and more than 80 |
other villages.
The capture Of Stepan, in which
600 Germans were killed, outflanked !
the German administrative center |
OF Rovno, IS miles to the southeast.
and indicated the Russians might |
attempt to isolate the garrison by |
cutting the Rovno-Kowel railway.
The First Ukrainian Amy also |
forged ahead east of Rovno, meth |
odically reducing the defenses
guarding the outpost of Shepetovka.
Several counter attacks were re- |
pulsed in one sector, while nearly |
1000 Germans were killed in an
other.
The Germans sent their counter
attacks against Vatutin's southern |
spearheads east of Vinnitsa on the
approaches to Rumania into the |
fourth day on a mounting scale |
but still without avail. In one Sec
tor, the enemy hurled more than |
100 tanks and self-propelled guns
against the Soviets, but retreated |
in disorder after losing 20 tanks |
and six guns. Some 1000 Germans
were killed and IS tanks and 20 |
armored cars wrecked in another
sector.