ZHUKOV'S SPEARHEADS

Evening Star, Issue 25394, 27 January 1945, Page 7

ZHUKOV'S SPEARHEADS

Fierce Thrust Beyond Poznan Silesia Front Cracking

(Rec 11.55,a.m.) I/ONDON, Jan. 26. The German defence on the Silesian front is cracking under the iron pressure of the Russian troops, says the Moscow 'Red Star/ The Exchange Telegraph's Moscow correspondent says that while the Pozman garrison is trying to hold the town in house-to-house defence, the large mobile columns of Zhukov's army which crossed the Warta River at many points are pushing on direct towards ' Frankfurt-en-Oder. The German '. News Agency, quoting the Berlin military spokesman, said Zhukov's tank spearheads penetrated •westward both sides of Poznan to the vicinity of Brandenburg Province, in which Berlin is situated. It claimed ; that these spearheads were destroyed. The German News Agency's von Hammer said*.the Russian forces be-

tween Breslau and Oppeln are receiving continuous .-reinforcements. The Russians are attacking Poznan from three sides. A fierce tank battle developed yesterday between Gleiwitz and Hindenburg, three miles eastward, and the fighting continued all night. The German lines south-west of Cracow were pulled back (the Skawa Raver runs 25 miles south-west of Cracow), The News Agency adds that Breisen, 95 miles east-north-east of the outskirts of Berlin, is one of the objectives;of Zhukov's thrust from Poznan. The fate of Obseuthen, one of the most important industrial mining centres of Upper Silesia, and a .railway junction, is unknown (Obseuthen is two miles inside Germany and five miles north-east of Hindenburg, where Berlin reports a violent-tank battle).