STETTIN UNDER FIRE

Evening Star, Issue 25440, 22 March 1945, Page 5

STETTIN UNDER FIRE

RUSSIAN PRESSURE INCREASES EAST BANK OF LOWER ODER CLEARED GERMANS REPORT FOUR DRIVES TO VIENNA AND PRAGUE ((Rec. noon.) LONDON, March 21. Following the capture of Altdamm, Stettin is under fire,from all types of Soviet weapons, and has been put out of commission as a first-class industrial base for the Germans, states Reuter's Moscow correspondent. All the east bank of the lower course of the Oder is now cleared, also the eastern shore of Stettin Lagoon. The Russians captured much booty in Altdamn, in addition to torpedo aircraft factories. The British United Press Moscow correspondent reports that the Germans opened the flood gates of irrigation canals south-west of Koenigsberg in an eleventh-hour attempt to stem Marshal Vassilevsky's assault against the outer defences. A considerable area of land is unundateij, but it is doubtful whether it will have much effect, on Russian plans. ■• It was earlier, reported that Russian tanks and cavalry south-west of Koenigsberg, sweeping on after the capture of Braunsberg, were in the south-eastern outskirts of Heiligenbeil, the last railroad junction in East Prussia in German hands. The Germans were attempting i.o, evacuate picked divisions and selected officers from the ipocket south-west of Koenigsborg in the past few days, but the Russian artillery and air force were shell* ing and bombing the port to prevent escape. The Russian air force, in greatly improved weather, has flown 5,000 sorties in the past few days, spreading destruction among tanks and lorries and sinking transports and barges. The Bulgarian Supreme Command, in a special communique, states that the Bulgarian (forces with the Red army wiped ,out the German Drava bridgehead after a. 14-day battle. The Russians are massing forces before Stettin, while batteries pin-point targets inside the port. Agency correspondents cabling from Moscow report that the Germans are heavily mining the west bank of the river and reinforcing fortifications at top speed in preparation to meet an early Russian crossing. The capture of Braunsberg has, enabled the Russians to step up their attacks against the enemy pocket southwest of Koenigsberg. The Germans inside the pocket are now running out of fuel. Mobile guns and tanks have been dug in as fixed defence points. Large groups of prisoners have been marched out of the East Prussian trap in the past 24 hours. German commentators continue to draw attention to the Red army offensives on the roads to Vienna and Prague. The Germans mention four drives; first, to the Czech mountain passes; secondly, north of the Danube,; in , Eastern Czecho-Slovakia.. towards Bratislava; thirdly, south-west of Budapest, towards the northern end of the Balaton gap; fourthly, south of Lake Balaton, north of the Drava River, towards Austria's back door. -.-. '