SOUTHERN ODER

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 31, 6 February 1945, Page 5

SOUTHERN ODER

New Soviet Attack

GERMAN REPORTS

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) Kec. 11.30 a.m. LONDON, February 5. Red Army troops under Marshal Koniev are stated by today's German High Command communique, to have launched a strong offensive from bridgeheads over the Oder, between Breslau and Oppem.

A Berlin military spokesman is quoted by the German news agency as saying: that three separate attacks were launched by powerful armoured infantry forces in a new Russian offensive on either side of Brieg (midway between Breslau and Oppeln). Heavy fighting has been going on for 24 hours since the opening of the offensive.

The spokesman also reported some Russian gains towards ■trankturt, m attacks from the north-east and south-east, which compressed the German bridgehead on the east side of the Oder Attacks are being made against Kustrin from the east and north Yon Hammer said Russian tank spearheads from the Brieg area had reached an area north-east of Grottkau.

A German news agency's correspondent, reporting that the ice on the Oder is rapidly melting, said, "The enemy is therefore hurrying more troops across the river to support the endangered bridgeheads. Fighting is particularly fierce at Steinau."

The Russians have reached the Oder on the vital central sector on the path to Berlin, according to a German military spokesman. Speaking over Berlin radio, he said: "The Red Army has reached Kienitz, thirty-five miles north-west of the outskirts of Berlin and ten miles north-west of Kustrin. The Russians have also reached the Oder near Kustrin, and on both sides of Kienitz." A German war reporter later stated over Berlin radio that the Russians have joined up their Oder bridgeheads at Ohlau and Brieg, on the sector south-east of Breslau. (Ohlau and Brieg, both on the Oder, are nine miles apart.)