The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-01-12
Reds Close
 On Sorny
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(Continued from Page n peratures converted snow into icy slush.
 Recent dispatches said German resistance was stiffening all around the 350-mile First Ukrainian Army front, stretching from the Sarny area to the approaches to Rumania following the arrival of German re- serves to i'll the gaps in Germany battered Panzer and infantry di- visions.
 The weight and frequency oi counter-attacks were stepped up especially around Sarny and north east of Shepetovka, the latter a five-way railway junction athwart the ancient invasion route into the southern Poland, the Army or gan Red Star said. but nowhere halted the onrushing Soviets.
 Battles were reported raging day and night with the Germans at tempting to bite into the Soviet Hanks to cut off Red Army van guards from masses of reserves streaming up from the rear,
 The capture of the railway towns of Strelsk, six miles north of Sarny and 39 miles inside old Poland, and Nemovichi, eight miles south of Sarny, yesterday was believed to have sealed the doom of the com municationS center and its fall was reported imminent,
 Both towns were on the Wilno- Rowne railway and their occupa. ton virtually split the German armies in the Ukraine of from those in White Russia, forcing tho enemy to fall back 82 miles to Ko- wei for the next north-south com. munications line between the two fronts.
 Guerrilla units aided advance guards of Nikolai F. Vatutins First Ukrainian army in the capture oi Strelsk and Nemovichi while the main column pushed along the Kiey Warsaw railway, which crosses the Wilno-Rowne line at Sarny, only a few miles east of the junction Eight hundred German officers ano men were killed.
 Other elements of Vatutin's arm, smashed enemy resistance below Novograd Volynski, 70 miles south, east of Sarny, and captured more than 30 towns and villages in forg. ing to within l2 miles northeast o. Shepetovka, five-day railroad june. tion guarding the approaches to Roy. no German administrative center for the Ukraine.
 Road Cutoff
 The Russians cut the north-souti road connecting the Rovno high. way with Shepetovka and a series o! other roads on both sides of tho Novograd Volynski-Shepetovka rail. way.
 Front dispatches said the threa to the Shepetovka was mounting steadily with every evidence tha' Vatutin would accentuate his oper. ations in an attempt to force thi. main gateway to the weSterr Ukraine. as the Russians refer tC the eastern portion of the pre-wal Polish state.
 In one sector, the Russians sur. rounded a group of German sol. diers in a forest and killed 400 O. them. A considerable number O. German and Hungarian soldier, surrendered, the Soviet midnight communique said, and six tanks seven guns and l9 mortarS were cap. tured.
 In an adjoining sector, the Rus. sians killed nearly 1000 Gemans fl pursuing a routed enemy formation At the southeastern corner O Vatutin's 350-mlie offensive front Soviet columns operating along thu Smela- -Khristinovka railway destroy, ed eight German military traini loaded with troops, tanks, ammuni. ton and fuel in a surprise blow.
 "Hitlerites who leaped from tn, trains were machine -gunned ant the railway line was strewn with th, corpses of Germans, and smashed tanks and trucks" the midnight communique said. Explosions ant fires destroyed large quantity o enemy war material"
 No Report
 Neither Vatutin nor Gen. Ivan s kolev, commander of the 2nc Ukrainian army in the central Onie. per bend. reported further progres. toward Rumania and 1t was theor, ized that they were gatherins strength for coordinated offensiyel aimed at cutting the Odessa -Lwov railway. last escape line for hun dreds of thousands of Germans il the Dnieper Bend, and driving or across the Dniester river into Bes, sarabia.