Evening star., 1944-01-20
Leningrad Siege Virtually Lifted
Russian Forces Take Novgorod
As Drive Peri|s 100000 Nazis
Two Offensives
Joined; Much
Material Taken
MAP on Page A-20.)
By he Associated Press.

By he Associated Press.
Capture of Novgorod, German
bastion 100 miles southeast of
Leningrad, was announced today
as Red Army forces swiftly rolled
up the enemy front in the north,
virtually lifted the long siege of
Leningrad and threatened to
trap 250,000 Nazis before the old
CzariSt capital.
Two powerful Russian forces strik-
ing from south and west of Lenin-
grad joined hands southwest of the
city, swapping shut 7-mile Nazi
corridor to the Gulf of Finland and
hopelessly trapping many Germans
behind the juncture.
The bulk of the great artillery
pieces which had hurled up to To-
inch shells into Leningrad for two
years were captured, late Moscow
dispatches said.
The Red Army units. which car
ried through one of the best ma
neuvers of the war, drove to within
l3 miles of the east-west railway
from Reval (Tallinn) in Estonia to
Vologda. a junction on the Moscow
Leningrad line.
One Other Line Left.
Except for one highway this rail-
way was the only communication
line available to the Germans hold
ing the German salient reaching to
within few miles of Lake Lodoga
east of Leningrad
The Russians said they killed 20
600 Germans in the first five days
of the Leningrad drive, which is now
IN its sixth day.
Premier Stain announced the
capture of Novgorod in an order of
the day, attributing the victory to a
bold, outf1anking maneuver. Death
to the German INVADERS he said in
acclaiming the victors
His announcement came a few
houls after the German high COM
mand said Novgorod had been
evacuated TO shorten the front"
Capture of the east-west railway
by the Russians would practically
Isolate the Germans holding posi-
tions east of the MoscoW-Leningrad
railway and also those east of Kras-
nogvardeisk formerly Gatchina), a
junction of the Leningrad-Pskov
and Reval-Vologda railroads.
The Russians were driving toward
the line from captured Krasnoye
Selo, the former Tsarskoye Selo or
Cars Village, Is miles southwest of
Leningrad, and from Ropshcha. 7
miles west. and were within 13 miles
OF the artery.
Gains Up to IL Miles.
Pouring through 25-mile gaps
blasted by Gen. Leonid A. Govorov's
guns and Stormovik planes, for gains
no to II miles. the Soviet hammer
heads were pounding toward Kras-
nogvardeisk and Dyetskoye Selo.
The offensive brought immediate
peril to large numbers of Germans
to the east who once held strip OF
landing reaching to Lake Ladoga.
Just a year ago this month Gen.
CIovorov broke through this German
FINGER lust south of Lake Ladoga
and lifted the German land blockade
which had forced the Russians to
supply Leningrad by roads built
across the lake ice in winter and by
boat in-summer
For a year Hitler's troops have
been trying to reforge the ring. but
Gen. Govorov's guns kept them
away. To hold their narrow salient
the Germans had maSsed huge
army in the finger and turned their
positions into solid maze of en-
placements, trenches, dugouts and
traps. A quarter Of a million men
may be in this area.
One of Gen. Govorov's strongest
blows was struck through the hills
to Pulkovo, 10 miles south of Lenin-
grad, which an Izvestia dispatch
called the key" to the Germans
Ieningrad line.
Beautiful Country.
This country is one of the most
beautiful in all Russia and once was
the playground of the Cars and
Russian nobility Tolstoy set many
Of the scenes of his novels there.
The celebrated astronomical OBJ
servatory at Pulkovo, most impor-
tant in the Soviet Union, has been
See RUSSIA, Page A-20)