Report From Berlin

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 47, 24 February 1945, Page 7

Report From Berlin

REDS TAKE POZNAM

m^ , LONDON, February 23. The battle for the Neisse River is now in full swing-. The Germans say that Marshal Koniev's troops succeeded in crossing the river, but that German tanks counter-attacked and. threw them back to the east bank.

Moscow correspondents report* that the Russians are fighting hard for crossings of the river, while their guns and aircraft hammer away at German supply roads and defences on the west bank. In Silesia, Marshal Koniev's men are battling in the suburbs of Breslau, four of which fell into their hands yesterday. ■ Marshal Rokossovsky's men are less than 30 miles from Danzig.

The Red Army celebrated its twenty-seventh birthday by Completing- the capture of Poznan which Marshal Zhukov's forces left behind a month ago. The end of the German resistance at Poznan means that it will now be much easier for Marshal Zhukov to bring up men and material for his troops who are lining the Oder 100 miles to the west.

m Poznan is a communications centre of first-class importance It is on the mam Warsaw-Berlin railway, and other railways link it with Breslau and Stettin. It was fought for street by street and house by house, and more than 25,000 Germans were killed during the four weeks the battle lasted. Twenty-three thousand prisoners were taken, including the garrison commander, and 365 German aircratt were captured.