RED ARMY PURSUES PANICKING GERMANS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 80, 4 April 1944, Page 5

RED ARMY PURSUES PANICKING GERMANS

WELL INTO RUMANIA Desperate Axis Efforts To Stem Soviet Tide N.Z. Press Association—Copyright Rec. 10 a.m. LONDON, April 3. How Marshal Koniev's troops crossed the Pruth River into Rumania on the heels of the panicking Germans and Rumanians, is described by a frontline correspondent of the Soviet newspaper Pravda. "Storm Troop men, with the aid of guns and tanks, attempted to introduce some order into the fleeing Axis troops," says the correspondent. "They hastily formed the troops into scratch companies and drove them northward to defend the approaches to the river crossing. "These units suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of Marshal Koniev's men and they fled across the river in panic with the Russians at their heels. The Russians quickly seized anything that would float and crossed the Pruth and, on the Rumanian side, seized the shallow bridgeheads, which, as more troops crossed over, merged into one solid bridgehead. "The Russians, after consolidating their position in the night, pushed on the next morning into the interior of Rumania. The banks of the Pruth are littered with German and Rumanian dead and abandoned material, testifying to the dash and impetus of the Red Army s advance. A German radio commentator 'says the German retreat on the eastern front was a preconceived plan, the full significance of which will not be understood until a much later date. Martial Law in Bucharest General von Ritter has arrived in Bucharest to speed up the work on Rumanian defences and Bucharest has been placed under martial law to stem the panic which grows as the Russians advance. saystheDaily Teleeraph correspondent in AnKara. The German Minister in Bucharest, Killinger, has brought great Presqure to bear in an effort to persuaae the Rumanians to . ™°^ nSharwhich have been in Rumanian hai hnnr=: since the war with Kussia started, to the Crimea to assist in the evacuation of . the> German and RU rti»SSs t^®to^ ftToernS woufd eSatf thlir StloSlnd 1S»«;«», .srsi in the Crimea in the Mrch. inere are signs that the Rumanians ar trvine to save what they can ot tneii monejTnto deteriorates.