A NEW ANGLE

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

A NEW ANGLE

REASON FOR RED ARMY'S SUCCESS

(Official War Correspondent N.Z.E.F.)

FAENZA, February 2. Two German deserters picked up by New Zealand troops have a brand-new reason for the success of the Russian offensives into Germany. They are convinced that German generals captured at Stalingrad drew up operations plans for the Red Army and that they and their colleagues of the Free German Movement are leading the thrusts into the heart of the Fatherland. , The deserters were recently happy in previous jobs as drivers with an army transport park in Undine, but they were victims of a combat which hurled them into the fray as infantry reinforcements. In company with other newcomers, few of whom had had any real infantry training, they listened to General Hoppe. The general told them that the Senio Line was strong, thoroughly mined and wired, and that it was to be held to the last man. The f£ alla" front was to stand firm while the Russians were driven from Germa n y< ~This did not S° down at alf well. One deserter, an ex-Communist, seemed pleased with the progress the Russians had made. "But the Rusians were kaput," he said. "Something extraordinary must have caused a change. The Free German Movement It \ v answer-" He went on to say that the sooner someone put a bullet through Hitler's head the better.