VIOLENT BATTLES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 70, 23 March 1945, Page 5

VIOLENT BATTLES

BALTIC SEA FRONT Germans Report Savage Struggle For Stettin Bridgehead Rec. 10 a.m. LONDON, March 22. The German news agency says that the great battle for the Stettin bridgehead began this morning after a violent Russian artillery barrage. The battle is very savage. The Russians have thrown in huge forces against Stettin in an effort to capture intact the bridges near the Oder's mouth, states Berlin radio. The Germans are retreating step by step to take up more favourable positions. Berlin radio war reporter says the Russian forces, in a full-scale assault on Stettin, were "extraordinary, even considering the scale of the previous deployments of the Red Army strength on the East Front." The Moscow paper Pravda, in a dispatch from advanced positions overlooking Danzig, said that enemy forces were sheltering in woods around Danzig. A murderous Russian fire was smashing sporadic counter-attacks. For Bomb Run On Berlin Another Pravda correspondent, ia a dispatch date-lined "Berlin highway," said that he could see, in a cloudless sky, British bombers banking for a bomb run on Berlin. The climax is fast approaching in. the long-drawn out battles for Gdynia and Danzig. Advances in the last 24 hours have effectively cut off Gdynia from Danzig and chopped out another big slice, roughly 13 miles long and seven miles deep from the Danzig pocket. The Red Army forces are massing outside Danzig for the kill, while Soviet planes bomb the town all day and night. Marshal Vasilevski's troops around Konigsberg have overrun three more German defence lines. The German pocket is compressed into such a narrow space that at no point is it deeper than three miles. A Red Star war reporter says that the battle for the liquidation of the Konigsberg grouping is nearing itsend. Infantry divisions of the socalled Battle Groups are melting away completely exhausted. Dead Germans litter the streets, fields and ditches in such numbers that the Russian sappers in one village were compelled to clear the streets before vehicles could pass. Zhukov Will Strike Soon Reuters Moscow correspondent says observers point to the intensive movement of the Red Army troops, tanks and guns to the Oder front, coupled with artillery duels and bitter air fighting as indicating that Marshal Zhukov will strike soon.. Meantime the Russians are firing katushas, which are multi-barrelled rockets and mortars, at Danzig, their range being directed from newly-won hill positions. More than 50 miles farther east, resistance of the Germans trapped south-west of Konigsberg has reached cracking point. A super tank division, which has been trying to force its way from the East Prussia pocket, lost most of its tanks and guns. The Hermann Goenng Division shared the same fate. The slaughter has been tremendous. Special Russian squads have been detailed to clear the streets choked with German dead before Soviet tanks and guns could advance.