RUSSIANS LAUNCH ALL-OUT ASSAULT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 100, 30 April 1945, Page 5

RUSSIANS LAUNCH ALL-OUT ASSAULT

Nearing Wilhelmstrasse

GERMANS USE TUBE NETWORK FOR CONCENTRATING TROOPS

N.Z.P.A.—Copyright—Rec. 12.30 p.m. LONDON, April 29. The forces of Marshals Zhukov and Koniev, which are fighting to split the German garrison in Berlin by a link-up in the central area of the Unter den Linden, to-day broke through to the heart of the Reich capital's "West End. ,, Reuters Moscow correspondent, reporting the crushing all-out assault launched by Marshals Zhukov and Koniev against the heart of Berlin, says that, while fighting is going on in the area of the zoo at the western end of t he Tiergarten, Marshal Zhukov's men in the north are near ing the Lehrter Station, only 200 yards from what remains of Himmler's Ministry of the Interior, and 600 yards from the Reichstag. Spearheads on the northern side of the encirclement, trying to curl round the Potsdam and Anhalter railway stations, are both within a few hundred yards of the Wilhelmstrasse. The Germans are penned in the area roughly following the outlines of the oldest part of the capital. The Russians have now entered the area which has suffered the most from Allied bombing. The Germans are fully utilising the ruins with camouflaged machine-gun and artillery positions among the bomb debris. The Russians have cut off the power for the underground railway system, but this is not preventing the Germans from using the tube network for switching and concentrating troops and threatening the Russians from the rear, The Germans are also using the underground system for armament repair shops, which are working at full pressure. S.S. troops, supported by groups of officers and cadets, seem now to be the backbone of the German defence. They are fighting fanatically and shooting waverers in the ranks. The British United Press correspondent describes the Germans as now cracking. He says reports are coming from all parts of the city of mass surrenders, of commanders taking drastic measures to prevent troops from deserting, and, when that fails, shooting them themselves. Germans are pouring from cellars in droves, while fanatics are becoming fewer and are hourly being blasted out by Soviet Guards, firing over open sights and blanketed by smoke-screens. With German civilians and soldiers milling around, fanatics fighting to the death and hundreds of Germans just round the corner showing white flags, Berlin is dying. The Exchange Telegraph correspondent reports a bloody battle at the western end of the Tiergarten, where Germans are barricaded in the Hippodrome, Technical High School and the Artillery-Engineering School. A correspondent of the Moscow paper Pravda says: "Artillery is pounding the centre of the city day and night. The earth is shaking as if by an earthquake. The nights are like the days, the moon and stars being hidden by a pall of smoke." RED ARMY ENTERS MECKLENBURG PROVINCE Marshal Stalin, in an Order of the Day to Marshal Rokossovsky, announced that the Red Army entered the province of Mecklenburg. The Order said: "Troops of the Second White Russian Front to-day occupied the towns and important road junctions of Anklam, Friedland, Neu Brandenburg and Lychen, and entered the territory of Mecklenburg Province." The places named are west, north-west and south-west of Stettin. To-night's Soviet communique repeats the Order of the Day to Marshal Rokossovsky and adds that his troops yesterday took 2000. prisoners and captured 106 field guns. "Troops of the First White Russian Command, continuing the street battles in Berlin," the communique adds, "captured the Moabit district, the Anhalter railway station, and 177 blocks of houses in the central part of the city. Russian forces north of Berlin captured a number of inhabited places, including Marienwerder. "More than 6000 Germans were taken prisoner in Berlin yesterday. The Russians captured 83 planes, 150 field guns, 139 locomotives, over 3000 railway carriages, and 30 military dumps. "Troops of the Third Ukrainian Command, engaged in the street fighting in the south-western part of Berlin, occupied the southern part of the Wilmersdorf district as far as Berlinerstrasse, and also captured the Hohenzollerndamm and Hallensee stations on the Berlin circular railway. They took prisoner yesterday more than 5000 Germans. ; "Troops of the First White Russian Command and the First Ukrainian Command are engaged in liquidating the Germans encircled in the Wendebuchholf area, south-east of Berlin. The Russians yesterday and to-day took 40,000 prisoners, of whom troops of the First White Russian Command captured 34,000.