THE FIRES OF BERLIN

Evening Star, Issue 25462, 18 April 1945, Page 5

THE FIRES OF BERLIN

CHEERING SIGHT TO RUSSIANS VISUAL EVIDENCE OF R.A.F/S WORK (Rec. 2 p.m.) LONDON, April 17. The Soviet communique says that the Russians on the Samland Peninsula captured Fischhausen and took 5,650 prisoners and a large amount < f booty, including 47 planes, 385 field guns, and over 2,000 lorries. The Russians threw back the remnants of the German garrison to the Pillau area, where they are now being wip£d out. Reuter's Moscow correspondent ays Red army men on the central sector are cheered almost nightly by the sight of fresh fires glowing in Berlin. A Russian general showed a Russian correspondent the capital flaming under showers of R,A.F. bombs, and said:

" Look at the work of our We have read about it, and - now we see ■it." ■ ■ ■■'■: r, .- t .

The German News* Agency's military commentator said: " "With the enemy's break-through from the east and the west; and with a wedge pointing from both directions towards Berlin, the organic structure of the German front has ceased to exist. The terms ' west front' and ' east front' have lost their meaning." The commentator for the first time referred! to "the fortress of Bavaria," saying that it would still play a big part in military history.