SLOWED DOWN

Evening Star, Issue 25400, 3 February 1945, Page 7

SLOWED DOWN

Russians Confront Inner Defences Intricate Fort System Suicide Garrisons At Every Post Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright (Eec. 11.55 a.m.) LONDON, February 2. The Bed army's advance on all fronts has at the moment Blbwed down, says the British United Press's Moscow correspondent. This is due to a combination of factors: First, the great extent of the advance to date, while has resulted in a vast extension of the Eussians' lines of communication and supply; secondly, stiffer German resistance; and thirdly, the Eussians' need to consolidate the ground already won and regroup for the next stage.- , . Reuter's Moscow correspondent says the area before, the Oder line, where Guderian is trying to check the Russians' advance, consists of an intricate system of fortifications-r-hifge 30ft wide anti-tank ditches, concrete pillboxes, and multiple trench lines, all intertwined with wire extending along the Oder, across highways, by-roads, fields, marshes, and forests. The German High Command is endeavouring to counter Marshal Zhukov's pressure along the line from the Warthe River down to the Oder elbow, by issuing orders that every defendable position must be held like a castk. v The German High Command in this way hopes to transform Germany into a network of suicide garrisons. These tactics had some success in such fierce prolonged battles as have gone on for Poznan and Koenigsberg, but the system does not always work. The German storm troops at Torun thought they would be able to. fight on for. a long time with the tucked away in cellars, but the Eed army gunners at point-blank range broke down the walls, and the Russian shock troops yesterday were able to storm the hedgehog apd take it. The correspondent points out that the elimination of Torun released considerable Russian forces for the drive along the Vistula towards Danzig. Brussels radio to-night re- ; ported that the Red army had reached a point six and a-half miles from the Bay of Danzig, in the Koenigsberg area.