NEARING CLIMAX

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 217, 13 September 1944, Page 5

NEARING CLIMAX

BAST FRONT BATTLE

Reds Reported To Have Entered Lomza

N.Z. Press Association —Copyright Rec. 2.30 p.m. LONDON, Sept. 12.

Of the two great battles in Eastern Europe, that is going on in North Poland that on the East Prussian frontier is nearing its climax, says Reuters Moscow correspondent. The Russians are maintaining almost complete silence about operations here. They have admitted, however, that the Germans are throwing in all they have got against the Russians and have stated that Russian patrols are continually thrusting against German soil. The Russians are reported to have entered the bitterly contested town of Lomza, pivot between the East Prussian battle and the righting north-west of Warsaw.

Russian forces south-south-west of Lomza to-day engaged in battles in which they have improved their positions and occupied a number of inhabited localities, says to-night's Soviet- communique. Marshal Malinovsky's tanks in the south, after smashing the powerful Hungarian defences barring their passage to the Transylvanian Alps, are pressing into central Europe. The Russians are already less than 200 miles from Hungary proper, with the retreating Germans and Hungarians facing a threat from two Russian flank thrusts. Rumanians and Russians have advanced and occupied the towns of Mercurea Ciucului, Blaj, Aiud and Deya, and also 150 other places, including three railway stations.