FIRST INTO BERLIN

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 92, 19 April 1945, Page 7

FIRST INTO BERLIN

PROBABLY THE RUSSIANS

LONDON, April 18. "Russian and not American forces will probably enter Berlin first. Junction of the two forces is likely when the flanks of the two forces meet at the beginning of the vast policing operation which must come in the near future," says the "New York Times" corespondent at Western Supreme Headquarters. "It is extremely unlikely that any headlong contact will be made by forces rushing eastward and westward," the correspondent declares. "The eastern thrust of the 12th Army Group, General Eisenhower's main striking force in the battle for Germany, has halted," says the correspondent. "The cessation of our eastern drive does not mean, however, that there are not tremendously difficult operations ahead of the British, American, and Soviet armies when they begin the task of eliminating German resistance in the areas still under German control—roughly 30 per cent, of what was the Greater Reich at the start of the great war. General Bradley's eastern drive has halted because of the supply problems and the difficult and lengthy task of co-ordinating the SHAEF tactical plans with the Russians." -