ADVANCE TOWARD HUNGARY

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24370, 23 September 1944, Page 7

ADVANCE TOWARD HUNGARY

Red Army, 20 Miles From Border

MANY RUMANIAN TOWNS OCCUPIED

(N.Z. Press Association— Copyright)

(Rec. 12.5 a.m.) LONDON. Sept. 22. Advancing on a front of 60 miles, the Red Army in west Rumania has occupied a large number of towns an 1 villages. Spearheads are within 20 miles of the frontier of Hungary, and only one big natural obstacle, the river Tisza and its tributaries, lies between the Russians and the Hungarian capital. Budapest. A Soviet communique says that Russian forces in west Rumania, in cooperation with Rumanian forces, have occupied 100 inhabited localities, including the town of Lipova. “The Germans, whose rail escape routes from the Balkans are already severed in several places, suffered the loss of a whole parked convoy of 200 vehicles of all kinds, including cars, trucks, petrol tankers, and some tanks in a dawn Spitfire attack on Pendinon, Greece, near the Serbian border,” says Reuter’s correspondent at Allied Head l quarters in Italy. “The attack was .led by Pilot Officer Tom Harrison, of Hastings, New Zealand. Reconnaissance aeroplanes later reported that all the vehicles were either destroyed or damaged.”

THRUST THROUGH ESTONIA

RAKWERE FALLS TO RUSSIANS

(Rec. 12.5 a.m.) LONDON, Sept. 22. The Russian advance through Estonia continues and more than 300 inhabited places have been occupied by the Russians, The important town of Rakwere, about 50 miles from the capital, Tallinn, has been captured and the enemy has been, cleared from the isthmus between Lake Peipus and the Gulf of Finland. “Russian and Estonian shock troops are tearing the Germans on the northern Baltic front to shreds and have thrust westward to the outskirts of the railway junction of Tapa. 45 miles east of Tallinn, after overrunning Rakwere and hundreds of other places along the southern shore of the Gulf ,df Finland,” says the Moscow correspondent of the Associated Press. “The Red Army has cleared Estonia’s two main railways to within artillery range of Tapa, The Russians’ superiority is so overwhelming that it seems likely the enemy will be unable to make even a temporary stand short of Tallinn. Further south, in the bulge west of Walga, the Russians are hammering away against stiff resistance.” A Soviet communique, issued last night, said:— ■ . , , . , “Troops of the Leningrad front, developing their offensive in the direction of Tallinn, to-day occupied the town and key railway station of Rakwere and fought their way into 300 inhabited localities. The Russians advancing west from Narva completely cleared the enemy from the isthmus between Lake Peipus and the Gulf of Finland. and joined the troops advancing on the western shore of Lake Peipus. The Russians north-west and west of Walga occupied several inhabited localities, and west of JelgaVa they repelled large enemy infantry and tank attacks. “The Red Army, south-east and south of Krosno (Poland), occupied a number of inhabited localities.” "To all intents and purposes Hitler’s Baltic front is now no more and the problem confronting the German -generals is what can be saved,” says Reuter’s correspondent. “The heavy battles of the last few days on the Baltic front have resolved into a mighty Russian double drive against Tallinn and a steady battering of the defences in front of Riga. The fall of both cities is likely to transform the Russian Baltic Campaign into another Crimea with the Germans having little possibility of evacuating by sea. “Two Russian Baltic forces, in the last five days, have swept through more than 1800 towns and villages, relentlessly pressing back the Germans towards the sea. German panzer attacks in the Jelgava area are waning, suggesting that the Germans have given up the idea of forming a bolt position south-east of Jelgava.” , The Moscow correspondent of the British United Press says that an Estonian army corps under LieutenantGeneral Perla is participating in the liberation of Estonia.

GERMANS STILL IN FINLAND

CHARGES BY MOSCOW NEWSPAPERS LONDON, Sept. 21. The Moscow newspapers accuse the Finnish Government of delay in carrying out the preliminary armistice conditions regarding the withdrawal of the Germans from Finland. “Izvestia” alleges that, although a week has passed since September 15, the date on which the Germans were to be removed from the country, not a single soldier has been disarmed or handed over to the Soviet. The Finnish authorities, moreover, are helping the Germans to get out without being disarmed.

“Pravda,” repeating the same charges, adds: “No further delay in this matter can be countenanced.” “Red st?r” ?ay? that the Germans are still in Petsamo. Reports quoted by the German radio state that urho Qestren, President of the Supreme Administrative Court, has been appointed Prime Minister pf Finland in succession to Hackzell, who is seriously ill in Moscow. The trade union leader. Vupri. and the former Minister of Social Affairs, Fagerholm, are included in the Cabinet as leaders of the peace Opposition. A Russian armistice control commission, headed by General Sjdanov, has arrived in Helsinki.