CLOSING IN ON VIENNA

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 13721, 3 April 1945, Page 3

CLOSING IN ON VIENNA

TWO RUSSIAN ARMIES

THREAT TO AUSTRIAN CAPITAL

Red Army Less Than Twenty Miles Away American Bombers Aid Soviet Advance London, April 2. American bombers from Italy to-day attacked five' communication targets n/ the south-western approaches to Vienna. With the Russians less than 20 miles from Vienna the Gauleiter of the city .has broadcast a denial that it will be declared an open town. It is to ho defended, he said, with every means. Two Russian armies arc rapidly closing in on the Austrian capital. Malinvosky’s men arc in sight of tire fortress town of Bratislava, its eastern gateway, while Tolhulkin’s forces are almost in Wiener Neu.--tadt, the centres of the southern defences. Russian tanks 30 miles inside Austria, have cut the road between Vienna and Graz. Marshal Stalin has just announced in an order of the day that an important oil centre south-west of Lake Balaton *in Hungary lias been captured by Marshal TolhukMn’s forces. The Red Army is expected to reach Vienna in a week, despite the many rivers, lakes, forests and dense industrial settlements that protect the approaches to the city, states the British United Press correspondent in Moscow. The Moscow newspaper Red Star says Marshal Tolhukhin’s and General Patton’s drives into Southern Germany are a co-ordinated movement. General Patton’s army will have a decisive influence on the course of the war. Hitler’s plans to create a Nazi bastion in the south will he frustrated. Marshal Tolbukhin’s offensive is co-ordinated with this drive. The Red Star adds that the Germans in Italy will he cut off.