RUSSIAN DRIVE FOR BERLIN

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24536, 9 April 1945, Page 5

RUSSIAN DRIVE FOR BERLIN

Fierce Enemy Air Attacks

BATTLES OVER CAPITAL

(Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, April 7. Pierce air battles are raging between the central Oder front and Berlin, where the renewed Russian drive for the German capital is reported to be going well. Reuter's Moscow correspondent says the Germans have massed a considerable number of aeroplanes on the network of airfields lying round the capital. • , . , • "Groups of very fast fighter-bombers from these fields have been trying to intrude behind the Russian lines and strafe troop movements to the front, adds the correspondent. They are each led by a Luftwaffe ace,.but the Red Air Force compelled the Germans to fight it out' over their own territory, including Berlin itself. Russian pilots In more than 100 air battles in the last few days shot down 150 German aero-. Pl A 1 German war reporter broadcasting over the Berlin radio, said that after a lull’of four weeks the Russian assault against Konigsberg had been renewed.

GERMAN LOSSES IN AIR

MANY FIGHTERS SHOT DOWN

ALLIED BOMBING RAIDS (Rec. 1 a.m.) LONDON, April 8. “Light bombers last night attacked enemy movement from Hanbver , to Berlin," says a Supreme Headquarters communique. “Allied units during the day shot down 105 aircraft and destroyed 116 on the ground. We lost 22 bombers and 16 fighters.” Fighters escorting 1300 American bombers attacking jet-plane aerodromes on Friday shot down 63 German aeroplanes, and the bombers destroyed at least an additional 21. Most of the bombing was done visually. and the results were reported as generally good. „ Last night the Royal Air Force bombed an oil refinery 10 miles southeast of Leipzig, and Lancasters attacked the port area at Amsterdam and E-boat and R-boat shelters. The United States Bth Air Force is over Germany to-day. , _ “With an increasing number of German airfields in our hands. Allied single-engined fighter-bombers can now be sent to Berlin." says an agency correspondent at Supreme Headquarters. “The Allied Tactical Air Forces can be let loose for low-level attacks against the capital. We are only about 180 miles from the nearest Russian lines, with this distance dally shrinking. There will soon be no part of central Germany beyond the reach of any Allied air weapons. Attacks against communications have become so efficient that few targets can now bo found/ There is a striking paucity of rail traffic. The whole German communications system is chaotic. - Photographic reconnaissance has shown that at least ,21 German merchantmen and naval vessels were sunk and many others damaged by the United Slates Bth Air Force attacks of March 30 against Bremen and Wilhelmshaven. by Bth Air Force attacks on the same day against Hamburg. and by the Royal Air Forces attack against Hamburg the following da, The photographs also show serious •;nd widespread damage to U-boat building yards and • naval repair

Agency correspondents in Moscow report that Marshal Malinovsky’s armoured spearheads after crossing the Moravia river at several points to-day, are swinging westward in a bid to complete the encirclement of Vienna from the north. Marshal Malinovsky’s left flank south of the Danube has now merged with Marshal Tolbukhin s right flank in the city’s outskirts. The Russians are rushing up fresh armies to join in the assault against the capital. Russian Stormoviks are pounding concentrations of enemy lorries and carts on the roads leading out of Vienna, They smashed up more than 100 lorries on one single stretch of highway. ' ...... Cabling late on Saturday night, Moscow correspondents said the Austrian capital was cut oil from the west. Marshal Tolbukhin’s men, sweeping round towards the Danube north-west of Vienna, cut the great motor road to Linz and south Germany and the Fran? Josef railway, which links Vienna with Bohemia. ... The last remaining railway leading out of the capital and linking it with Moravia and west Silesia runs so close to the Danube 1 it is well within the range of Marshal Tolbukhin’s artillery. Reuter’s correspondent says that the capture of KlosterneUburg deprives the Germans of their last escape road from Vienna on the south bank of the Danube. The enemy’s only remaining gpproaches to the city are from the north and 1 across the three Danube bridges. Complete bewilderment reigns ■in Vienna because no more food supplies are reaching the people. Rubble is piling up in the streets. All approaches are barricaded with centuries old trees. . t . _ , The Russians south-west of Lake Balaton, with the Bulgarians, occupied Murskasobota. Yesterday 3600 German prisoners were taken on all fronts.

facilities at all three ports. The cruiser Koln was severely damaged by two direct hits and has apparently sunk in the bottom of the shallow harbour at Wilhelmshaven. Other vessels sunk include a minesweeper, two water carriers, two freighters, and six unidentified vessels. A freighter capsized in a dry dock, a liner is low in the water, and another liner is on fire and listing.