RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE ENTERS YUGOSLAVIA

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 213, 8 September 1944, Page 5

RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE ENTERS YUGOSLAVIA

LINKS VP WITH TITO Trap For Nazi Forces In Danube Valley N.Z. -Press Association—Copyright Bee. 11.30 a.m. LONDON, Sept. 7. The Russians, according to the free Yugoslav radio, have reached Kladovp, over the frontier of Yugoslavia. ICladovo is on the Danube opposite Turnu Severin, which is at the southern end of the Iron Gate gorge. The Russians are employing large groups of paratroops for their rapid advance to link up with Marshal Tito's forces. While tne Russians have been sweeping across Rumania the Yugoslavs have been conducting a great campaign against German communications with the intention of trapPing as many Germans as possible in the Balkans. The Belgrade-Zagreb line, one of the Germans' main escape routes, was cut at least 308 times. There seems to be little chance of the Germans defending the Yugoslav side of the Danube, which the Red Army has now reached at Kladovo, as they are fighting with their backs to a wall of mountains which is infested with Partisans and their main supply line, the NishBelgrade railway, has almost certainly been cut. Marshal Tito's plan is apparently to concentrate as much strength as Possible in Central Serbia and thus threaten the chief German line of escape—the Salonika-Sofia-Nish-Bel-grade railway—with attacks from both sides. Russian advanced elements are now only 90 miles from the railway. The Germans in Slovakia are developing a big drive to regain control of the Kosice-Bohumin railway, so vital for German troop movements from South-eastern Europe. Czechoslovak Headquarters states there has been strong German pressure from both west and east toward the Upper Vah Valley along the railway by German tanks and motorised units, supported by aircraft "Our troops and Partisans are stubbornly resisting the enemy, jgi whom they are inflicting heavy