NEARING BUDAPEST

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 November 1944, Page 5

NEARING BUDAPEST

RUSSIAN TANK DRIVE “INCREASINGLY POWERFUL” LONDON, November 2. Kecskemet, the fifth city of Hungary, has fallen to the Red Army, and Soviet armoured columns were last reported 12 miles beyond Kecskemet and within 35 miles of the Hungarian capital, Budapest. The Russian tanks are sweeping forward on a wide front on flat country between the Danube, and Tisa Rivers. The capture of Kecskemet means that the enemy has lost the last bulwark defending Budapest to the south-east. The Germans brought up a tank division in an effort to save the city and launched about 40 counter-attacks. In the area ot Kecskemet the Russians have occupied more than 100 places, and east of Budapest, in the area oi Nyiregyhaza, other Russian formations have captured more than 40 places. Russian forces in Hungary are fighting less than 30 miles from Budapest. The Germans admit that Soviet troops have penetrated a village 2J miles south of the capital, and the German News Agency, quoting a Berlin military spokesman says “the great enemy assault against Budapest is becoming increasingly powerful hour“The new satellite Government of Hungary is facing the supreme test in the field to-day—the defence ol Budanest against the Red Army s tanks* and troops,” says the Moscow correspondent of the Associated Press. “The Russian spearheads have beaten back stiff, but weakening Hungarian and German resistance between the Danube and Tisa Rivers, but the going is hard because of the great amount of anti-tank forces and weapons the enemy has assembled on the broad treeless plain. Advanced Russian tank forces are believed to be within 30 to 35 miles of the outskirts of Budapest. They are battling against German tanks, which are attacking violently in spite of losses. Among places captured, named in a Soviet communique, are Lajos Mizse, 10 miles north-west of Kecskemet and 40 from Budapest; Kerekegyhaza, on a branch railway 10 miles west of Kecskemet; and Kiskoros, a railway junction on the BudapestBelgrade railway 30 miles south-west of Kecskemet. RUSSIAN ADVANTAGES RUGBY, November 2. The Russian Army in Hungary having cleared its. flanks round Belgrade and in Ruthiania resumed the offensive east and south. This sweep up the gap between the Danube and the Tisza threatens to turn, the German position on the Upper Tisza where the Germans recently managed, at heavy cost, to straighten and stabilise their line. The Russian left flank now rests securely on the Danube from below Budapest to where the river bends east above Novisad. Where the river flows through Jugoslav, the Russians are not likely to find it a serious obstacle, as they are being helped by the Jugoslav guerrilla forces m Slavonia. The Russians thus have more than one direction in which to advance and its tributaries are not hkely to allow their advance to outrun its long supply routes.

GERMANS JN RETREAT (Recd. 12.10 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 2. The Foreign Legations at Budapest have been asked to leave as soon as possible, states the Ankara radio. The German Forces radio, besides referring to the “savage attacks” towards Budapest from the Kecskemet area, said that German troops were evacuating the German salient at Nyiregyhaza and “our positions have been taken back to the northern bank ol the Tisa.” Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says that the position of the German and Hungarian armies battling against the Red Army advance io Budapest has deteriorated sharply in the past few hours. The Soviet wedges are being merged into one solid steel mass driving towards the capital and a powerful air screen is covering the advance to Bucharest. A Rumanian High Command communique states that Rumanian troops covering the Red Army in north-west Hungary have reached the Tisa and have occupied Kisvarda. The German News- Agency admitted that the Russians have forced a breach in the German defences at Kunsztmiklos, 29 miles south of Budapest.

IMPORTANT GAINS (Recd. 12.25 p.m~LONDON, Nov. 2. Russians in the Budapest direction between the Danube and the Tisa today captured Domsod, on east bank of the Danube, twenty-eight miles from Budapest, and also the important town and railway station of Nagykoron, ten miles north-east of Kecskemet and over • sixty other places, says to-night’s Soviet communique. Troops between the Danube and the Tisa yesterday toop prisoner 2000 Germans and Hungarians. The former Hungarian Chief of the General Staff, Colonel-General Veres, surrendered to the troops. Russians to-day north and west of Nyiregyhaza as the result of offensive battles cleared the left bank of the Tisa.

JUGOSLAV ACTIVITIES

LONDON, November 2

“Offensive operations are continuing in Dalmatia,” says a communique from Marshal Broz’s headquarters. “On the sector of Podgorica there has been heavy •„ fighting, and German counter-attacks have been repelled on the lower Lim River. In Macedonia Jugoslav troops captured the town of Prilep, where the entire garrison was routed. West of the Vardar River Jugoslav and Bulgarian troops have broken through on the upper reaches of the Cini River. In eastern Bosnia German forces encircled at Zvornik attempted to break through, but were repelled. In lower Bosnia there has been heavy fighting in the region of Kiseljak and Zenica. At Istria a German column was smashed and three trains were derailed on the railway lines to Trieste, Pola, and Fiume. In Slovenia, Jugoslav units have been particularly active against enemy communications.” The Free Jugoslav radio says: General Mikhailbvitch’s son, Branko, and his daughter, Grozdana, have joined Marshal Tito’s forces “to efface the shame”- of their father’s treachery. Branko declared that his father’s Chetniks were equipped and directed by Germans. Marshal Broz has announced that his talks with the Prime Minister of Jugoslavia (Mr Subasic) have resulted in an agreement to fdrm a united Government as soon as possible. DESTRUCTION IN BELGRADE. (Rec. 10.35) ■ ~LONDON, Nov. 2. Belgrade appears to have suffered more damage than .any European capital yet liberated, says Reuter’s correspondent at Bari. The first arrivals from Belgrade say there is not a street which has escaped damage, while many districts have been completely razed.’ This is due not only to the terrible German air raids of 1941 and the Allied air attacks on German Headsquarters there, but also to the fact that the city was liberated only after a six-day battle the fury of which can be judged from the German cas-

unities numbering 16,000 dead. Less than half of Belgrade’s pre-war population of 150,000 remain among the scorched and ruined houses. The Partisans have clamped on price control in order to prevent inflation of the dinar, which was 230 to 240 to the pound sterling before tne war and is now 50,000 to the sovereign, or 10,000 to the paper pound. A box of matches, which is rare, costs 50 dinars, whereas a roll of him, oi which there is plenty obtainable, costs 100 dinars.. Pillagers around the capital are reported to possess plenty of food and drink, but Belgrade will be largely cut off from the rest, of the country. Cinemas are running day and night, showing Russian films free of charge. » GERMANS LEAVING NORWAY LONDON, November 2. Reuter’s Stockholm correspondent says’ It is reliably reported from Tromso that the Germans are evacuating North Norway. thousand German troops tnaversed-. Tromso in the last few days on Ibeir way south. Tromso itself is being evacuated. The forces there are now mainly transport detachments. BULGARIA’S STATUS. LONDON, November 1. “Bulgaria is still not recognised, as a co-belligerent by any of the Allied Governments, although the armistice with Bulgaria has been signed, said the Minister of State (Mr. Law), m answering a question in the House ol Commons. ' Mr. Law was also asked about the British policy regarding the reconstitution of Albania. Replying, he said he had nothing to add to the Foreign Secretary’s statement in December, 1942—that the Albanian people themselves would decide what would be the future Government of Albania. RELIEF FOR POLAND WASHINGTON, November 1. . “A delegation of technical experts is soon to be dispatched to survey relief needs and work out arrangements for providing relief to liberated Poland, writes a Washington correspondent. “The proposed relief operations for the people of liberated Poland are being undertaken by UNRRA in accordance with the desires of the Polish Government in London and the Polish National Committee of Liberation' in-Lublin.” EX-ENEMY NATIONS. (Rec. 12.25) WASHINGTON, November 2. Regarding the treatment of defeated enemy nations, Mr. Connally (chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee), said a countrylike Hungary cannot expect tq escape unpunished for sins committed. Hungarian troops killed Russians and fought against our armies. The same thing applied to Rumania and Bulgaria. On the other hand Italy presents an anomaly. While we gladly help her to resume free government, restraints must 'be imposed to remind her of the crimes committed under Mussolini. , J , Mr. Connally said that plans for the completion of an international peace organisation were going along satisfactorily. '.