Evening star., 1944-01-27
Nazis Driven
40 10 SO Miles
From Leningrad
Govorov Announces
Liberation of Area
In 2-Week Drive
MAP on Page A-5.)
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
LONDON, Jan. 27-Gen. Leo
mid A. GovorOv announced today
that Leningrad had been COM
pletely liberated by the two-week
Russian offensive, with the Nazis
driven 40 to go miles from the
city and more than TOO nearby
towns and villages freed.
The exceptional honor of "a SAL
woes from 324 guns reserved for the
greatest victories was ordered fired
by the guns of Leningrad for the
armies, the people of Leningrad
and the Red fleet.
LAS the result Of the fighting
task Of historic Importance has
been solved-the city of Leningrad
has been completely liberated from
the enemy blockade and from bar
barrie enemy shelling," said a special
bulletin recorded from a Moscow
broadcast by the Soviet monitor.
The announcement was signed by
Gen. Govorov, commander of the
Leningrad front: 1t. Gen. Andrei A.
Zhdanov, member of the military
council for the Leningrad district;
1t. Gen. Fedor Kuznetsov. men,
ber of the military council for the
Baltic district; Maj. Gen. Solovyev,
chief of staff on the Leningrad
front, and 1t. Gen. Gussev.
Earlier Moscow dispatches quoted
Pravda as saying the Russians had
reached the Luga River west of Nov
gorod as the Leningrad army Of
Gen. Govorov and the Volkhov army
of Gen. K. A. Meretskov continued
to smash from the opposite direc-
tions into the Germans Baltic
salient.
The Luga Is about 10 miles east
OF the Leningrad-Vitebsk Railway,
one Of the two remaining railways
radiating southwark from Leningrad
that remain available for German
use.
The Pravda dispatch said three
German regiments were defeated in
a clash on the Luga.
Rivers Flooded.
A sudden, freakish thaw has
turned the front below Leningrad
into quagmires, muddy roads, un-
locked swamps and flooded rivers,
front dispatches reported, but the
Red armies kept up their great
northern offensive.
In weather, the like Of which sell
dom has been seen in the Leningrad
area, Russian troops strove nightly
to clear the last remaining IS miles
of the Leningrad- Moscow trunk
railway still in German hands and
make possible the resumption of di-
rect rail traffic between Russia s two
largest cities.
The big junction towns Of Tosno.
Luban and Chudovo are in hourly
peril from the advancing Soviet
forces, dispatches said, and it was
difficult to see how all of them will
be able to remain in German hands
for another "a hours.
CA London broadcast, quoting
an unofficial Moscow broadcast
and recorded by CHS, said that
Soviet forces "have already bro
ken into Chudovo.")
Reds Rebuilding Railway.
A front-line dispatch to the army
newspaper Red Star said the freak
thaw was giving Soviet forces much
trouble south of captured Kras-
nogvardeisk where army engineers
are working day and night to rebuild
sections of the railway to Pskov
which the Nazis dynamited in des-
perate attempt to halt the Russian
onslaught.
Krasnogvardeisk's capture was re-
garded here as one of the Germans
worst defeats of the Leningrad Of
fensive. The Russians captured
huge amounts of booty.
The newspaper Izvestias cor
respondent said in a dispatch from
the newly reconquered city that
most Of the houses had been blown
up or burned and that many of
the younger residents had been
taken to Germany.