Evening star., 1944-02-03

joining of the first and second
Ukrainian fronts, trapping 10
German divisions. He pro-
claimed capture of Smela, rail
center in the Dnieper Bend,
and said the Red armies of
Gen. Nicholai Vatutin and
Gen. Ivan S. Konev had made
gains of up to As miles in a
100-mile breakthrough of the
German lines. The proclama-
ton was broadcast from Mos
COW.
By the Associated Press.
LONDON, Feb. 3.-The Ger
man high command announced
today that Nazi troops had aban-
doned >Lutsk Guck), 70 miles in
side old Poland, and Rovno, an
other important stronghold 80
miles inside the prewar border,
ahead of a developing Red Army
offensive driving west from Nov
ograd-Volynski To the north,
meanwhile, the Germans said
they we're evacuating Narva, in
Estonia.
The Nazi withdrawal from Lutsk
was surprising, since last previous
reports from this sector of the East
ern front had placed the fighting in
the area of Rovno, 40 miles to the
east, and there had been no indica-
ton that Lutsk was yet menaced.
The withdrawal from Lutsk ap-
peared to be one of the most i'm
portant backward steps let taken
by Hitler. His armies in that area
now are closer to his ravaged capital
of Berlin than at any time since he
overran an unprepared Europe.
Bitter Defensive Fighting.
The high commands communique,
broadcast in English by DNB, said:
"Rovno and LUX were evacuated
in the course of embittered defensive
fighting"
Ouzk is the German spelling;
Luck the Polish, Lutzk an angli-
cized form)
The evacuation of Lutsk indicated
that Gen. Nikolai Vatutin's Ukrain-
ian Army had advanced so miles in
a few days and was in a position
to turn the German lines all along
the Lower Dnieper River and throw
the Nazis into Bessarabia, part of
prewar Rumania. Two days ago the
Germans began reporting a new Of
fensive so miles east Of Lutsk.
Moscow has not yet confirmed the
advance. British military circles
saw no reason for serious doubt, al
though one comment was that Il
naturally want to hear the Russians
confirm it because there always is a
chance that the Germans might re-
port false withdrawal and then
claim a recapture later"
100000 Nazis Threatened.
The swift advance threatened
completely to nullify Marshal Won
Mannstein's desperate stand around
Vinnitsa and Uman in the Western
Ukraine, attacks which have been
blocking the Russians from the Bes-
sarabian border 60 to 10 miles away
for several weeks. Should Vatutin
sweep down the railroad from Lutsk
to LWow, the estimated 100000 Ger
mans in the Ukraine could be ex-
tricated only through Rumania.
From Lutsk, Vatutin also menaces
Brest-Litovsk, one of the most i'm
rortopt cor,,r,,11picoti tior roptore of
prewar Poland and key to the entire
White Russian front.
An earlier announcement by the
Berlin radio said:
I'm the course of German move
ments on the eastern front Rovno
and LUX were abandoned by Ger
man troops yesterday. The German
troops have taken up new positions
west of the two towns"
Although the Russians themselves
have not disclosed a new offensive
in this region, Berlin reported last
night that an intensified Soviet
drive had been launched and said
the Red Army had crossed the mid
die Gorin River, which runs west of
Rovno.
Farther to the southeast, the COM
munique said, the Russians were
attacking Shepetovka. New Soviet
thrusts also were reported on the
Nikopol bridgehead, while south
west of Dnepropetrovsk the Nazis
admittedly were heavily engaged
against advancing Soviet tank
formations.
Heavy Battles Along Front.
A German military spokesman in
a midafternoon broadcast from
Berlin said:
Very heavy battles are in
progress along almost the entire
length of the eastern front.
Continued Russian thrusts car
ried forward from Sarnv and Polon-
noye caused the German high COM
mand to abandon the town of Rovno
and to take positions farther to the
west. LUX also was abandoned.
Fighting is so fluid it is very
difficult to give detailed picture
on the various front sectors"
Lutsk, capital of the Polish prov
ince of Volhynia, is SO miles east of
the Bug River. which forms por-
ton of the "Curzon line" recently
proposed by Russia as the basis for
a postwar boundary with Poland.
Thus its capture would place the
Red Army approximately two thirds
of the way across the section of Po-
land which the Russians expect to
holG permanently.
Important Railway Lost.
Both Lutsk and Rovno are i'm
portant rail and highway centers
with prewar populations in the