EAST AND WEST FRONTS

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24547, 21 April 1945, Page 7

EAST AND WEST FRONTS

“A RENDEZVOUS IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA” LONDON, April 19. “A vast new German pocket is developing in Czechoslovakia,” says Reuter’s correspondent in Moscow, pointing out that towns at each end of the pocket—Brno and Moravska Ostrava—are being encircled, and that the Red Army is striking across the BrnoJihlva railway, which is the main potential German escape line back to Prague. Squadrons of Soviet aeroplanes are Striking hard against roads and railways, while heavy guns are blasting a way through the outer defences of the two towns, which are already outflanked from the west. Marshal Malinovsky’s troops on this front are seen here as the Red Army’s spearhead, which is destined to keep a rendezvous with the Allies somewhere in Czechoslovakia. They are waiting only for the fall of Brno to make a big lunge westward. A Soviet commentator to-day said: 1 “The junction of the two fronts is approaching reality. It is a great triumph for the military plans decided at Yalta.” While Marshal Malinovsky and Marshal Tolbukhin are thrusting put prongs aimed at Prague, the Bavarian border and German communication lines with northern Italy, troops of the third Ukrainian front and elements of the American 7th Army are moving towards each other, threatening to upset Hitler’s plans for a stana in the alpine regions, All these moves are part of the pattern for the total destruction of the German army, but it would not be wise to say that the German line in the east is now crumbling or that it is ready to crack. Along its entire length the Germans are taking terrific punishment, as is shown by the high tank and aeroplane losses.