FIFTY MILES FROM BERLIN

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 29, 3 February 1945, Page 5

FIFTY MILES FROM BERLIN

Zhukov Thrusting On

CAPTURES TOWN TEN MILES FROM THE ODER N.Z.P.A. —Copyright.—Rec. 2 p.m. LONDON, February 2. The capture of Drossen, on Marshal Zhukov's central front, midway between Kustrin and Frankfurt and 10 miles from the River Oder, reveals that the Russians are 53 miles from the outskirts of Berlin. A German report places the Russian forces 12 miles farther on and says they are only two and a half miles from Frankfurt, where it claims the German Army has halted the invaders. The Russians in their penetration to the Oder, west of Leszno, also captured Boyadel, on the east bank of the Oder. Marshal Zhukov's forces are also reported to be sweeping forward on both flanks. To the south they are reported to have reached the Oder on a wide front below Frankfurt and Kustrin. The northern flank, thrusting toward the Baltic, has reached a point 35 miles from Stettin. The disclosure that the Russians have made at least one attempt to cross the Oder River in the Kustrin region was made by a commentator on Berlin radio in a broadcast praising the Volkssturm. He stated that the "courageous citizens of Kustrin" routed a pack of tanks which tried to force the Oder crossing.

Later the German news agency quoted a Berlin military spokesman as saying that the Kustrin garrison was at grips with the. enemy at close quarters. He added that the Russians had not yet reached Frankfurt. The enemy east of Kustrin and Frankfurt was pushing closer to the Oder, but he had not yet reached this section of the Oder. ' To-night's Soviet communique states: "The Russians in the Schneidemuhl area continued the fight for the annihilation of the encircled garrison, and north-east of Frankfurt captured 150 places, including Soldin and Drossen, 16 miles north-east of Frankfurt. The Red Army in the Posen area continued fighting for the annihilation of the encircled town. The Russians west of Leszno reached the Oder River and captured Lippen. "The Russians in East Prussia captured 100 places, including Domnau, Schippenbeil and Guttstadt. . ."The Russians in Budapest captured 23 blocks of buildings." The Times Stockholm correspondent quotes Berlin military circles as saying that conditions on the "Berlin front"—as the Germans now call operations toward the Frankfurt-Kustrin sector—have at least temporarily changed in favour of the Germans as the result of the sudden thaw yesterday. A German High Command report declares that stubborn German resistance in the eastern Brandenburg area has somewhat checked the Russian spearheads, and adds: "Russian activity has also notably slackened in the adjacent Oder sector as far as the Pruneberg area." . The German commentator, von Hammer, to-night said Marshal Zhukov's northern flank, in a big sweep to the north-west around the armoured battles before Frankfurt, is within 23 miles of Stettin. He added: "Still another Russian attempt yesterday to take Kustrin failed, and the enemy's general movements between Kustrin and Stettin were impeded." Von Hammer reported that the Red Army south-west of Cracow this afternoon launched a new attempt to break through the Moravian gap in the direction of: Dziedzice, in Polish Silesia.