LINKING OF ARMIES WILL SLICE GERMANY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 95, 23 April 1945, Page 5

LINKING OF ARMIES WILL SLICE GERMANY

UNION IMMINENT American And Soviet Forces Approach N.Z.P.A. and British Wireless Rec. 1 p.m. LONDON, April 22. Only a negligible corridor separates Marshal Koniev's forces storming into Dresden from General Patton's spearheads in the Chemnitz area, Which will slice the German remnants in a military sense, besides cutting them geographically into two. A second junction between the East and West Fronts is expected soon north of Berlin between Stendahl and Oranienburg. which would isolate the whole of Northern Germany The Russians in this area, driving a wedge 18 miles broad into the German lines, have already smashed across the main railway from Berlin to Stettin. Marshal Malinovsky's men far to the south are pressing along both sides of the Austro-Czech frontier and are within 30 miles of the big motor road leading to Prague. Most observers at Supreme Headquarters believe that the junction between the Russians and Americans has already been made somewhere around Dresden, as was announced by the German radio, but Supreme Headquarters has not yet officially announced it. The British United Press correspondent with the American First Army says house-to-house fighting went on all day inside Dessau, of which the Americans hold twothirds. American troops whenever they got a chance gathered round small inter-unit radios and listened to Russian voices, but most of the troops don't know the exact situation of the Russians. Americans Hear Russian Voices "Radio contact has been established between the American and Russian forces," said an American broadcaster at General Bradley s headquarters this afternoon. 'Russian voices are becoming increasingly clearer over the radios of the Ninth Army vehicles beyond the Elbe. Reconnaissance forces are poised to move forward at a moment's notice. Russian-speaking soldiers are ready to follow up. Everything indicates that a junction with the Red Army is imminent, although the closest approach to the Ninth Army is still uncertain. An American-Russian lmk-up on the Elbe River some 70 miles due south of Berlin is imminent, slated the Associated Press correspondent at Supreme Headquarters, in an earlier message, commenting on a German communique announcing that the Russians had reached the Juterbog area, south-west of Berlin. This narrows the distance between the Russians and the Americans in this area to 35 miles. Joint Announcements to be Given Luxembourg radio says the junction between the American and Russian troops, when it is effected, will be announced by a joint official statement of the United Nations. It does not seem possible that the Germans can long maintain their central corridor. When it is broken they are likely to try to hold Northern Germany by using the lower courses of the Elbe and the Oder, which are connected by an east-west canal running about 15 miles north of Berlin. On the south side the eiaemy lines run along the northern slopes of the mountain barrier which forms the northern border of Bohemia and Moravia. In view of the pressure which can be brought to bear from various quarters, however, neither of these lines in north and south seem to offer the enemy much more than a brief respite before he is driven from almost the whole of German soil.