RUSSIANS RUN RIOT

Evening Star, Issue 25469, 27 April 1945, Page 5

RUSSIANS RUN RIOT

STETTIN AND BRNO CAPTURED BERLIN BATTLE HEARS END ENEMY'S WILL TO RESIST BREAKING (Rec. 1 p.m.) LONDON, April 26. With the battle for Berlin drawing to a close, Marshal Stalin has announced two other Soviet successes—the capture of Brno and the capture of Stettin. Announcing the fall of Stettin, at the mouth of the Oder, Marshal Stalin said that troops of the Second White Russian Front also ■ occupied Gartz, Penkun, Lasekow, and • Schwedt, thereby breaking through the strong German defence area on the western bank olf the river and advauciug 19 miles. The order of the clay on the capture of Brno says that troops of the Second Ukrainian Front, continuing their offensive, by a skilfully executed o'utflanking manoeuvre, combined with n frontal assault, to-day captured the capital of Moravia, Brno, a large industrial centre, an important railway junction, and a powerful strongpoint in the German defences Reuter's Moscow correspondent says that by the capture of Brno, Prague is now directly threatened from the south-east, besides from the north. The Red army to the south of Bautzen is preparing for a southward drive along several good roads to Prague, 75 miles away. Brno lies 112 miles to the southeast of Prague, and there are good roads, also two alternative railway routes, leading to Prague. German counter-attacks in the Bautzen sector have become very strong, but are being hurled back with heavy losses. BATTLE FOR CAPITAL. The end is coming in Berlin now —entire German companies and platoons are surrendering—states the British United Press Moscow correspondent. The garrison's will to fignt has been crushed in one of the most terrific city battles in history. There are slogans like "We shall never give in," on the crumbled walls, but the faces of endless columns of prison ers tell a different story.

In the. heart of the city, liowevet, fanatics, mostly S.S. men, are fighting on The Russians make short work of those who refuse to surrender

Mercy is neither granted noi wanted in this furious battle Barricades protecting the centre otf the city are falling fast under devastating gunfire. The last exits have been sealed off. There can be no possible escape for the Nazis. If Hitler is inside the Russians will get him —dead or alive.

The Russians in one part of the city found some planes with motors still warm They were apparently intended for n last-minute escape for prominent Nazis.

Thousands of terror-stricken refugees nre trying to run through a living hell -from the German lines into the Rus-sian-occupied districts, but some of these so-called refugees are spies and saboteurs, who have been found carrying radio transmitters and signal flares. Cases of treachery have caused Red army men to double their vigilance in searching for Nazi leaders. For example, the " pastor " of a church in an eastern suburb, who greeted the Russians with benign smiles, turned out to be a disguised Nazi fanatic who was directing German gunfire by a radio in the church. Russian assault units, swarming across are being followed up by tank-borne infantry and artillerv plunging in the direction of the Tiergarten. Sappers have replaced blownup bridges in a matter of hours. A Russian correspondent just back from Berlin said: " The artillery barrage in the heart of Berlin is so terrible that whole blocks of stone buildings are simply dissolving into atoms. Berlin is a wilderness worse than Stalingrad. Warsaw, or Sebastopol." Another Russian correspondent said the Germans are now bombing their own capital by dive bombing Russian lit tuckers