ENCIRCLING BUDAPEST

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 December 1944, Page 6

ENCIRCLING BUDAPEST

RUSSIANS COMMAND ROADS

GERMAN ATTACK FAILS

(Rec. noon.) LONDON, Dec. 14. A Soviet communique states: Russian troops in .Hungary, north-east and north of Miskolez, occupied the town and railway station of Szerones, 13 miles north-east of Misholez, on the main line running to Kosico .and captured eighteen other localities and three railway stations. Russians north of Miskolez and north-east of Budapest yesterday captured 879 Germans and Hungarians. Bitter hand-to-hand fighting is going on to-night inside the German defence system guarding the northern and eastern approaches to Budapest, states Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. Soviet guns now command all the roads east of the Danube and can 1-iring German reserves under five The Germans have slowed the Red Army’s onslaught by pouring in rear.; soon as they emerge' Irom the oily, inforcements and by savage, costly counter-attacks, but these stop-gap tactics are approaching exhaustion. Considerable importance is attached in Moscow to the fighting across the Danube, south-west of Budapest. A Soviet front-line cot respondent on this sector said the enemy understands the fate of the whole Budapest grouping is being decided here. The British United Press Moscow correspondent says: A huge battle is raging south-west of the capital along tlie 30-mile long railway embankment. The heaviest fighting is going on in the area of Marton.vasar, about 17 miles south-west of Budapest. The Germans here throw in 75 tanks and three regiments of infantry into a counter-attack, but the Russians held firm. When the Red Army breaks through this lino the encirclement of Budapest will be complete. The German main defences north-ease end north of Budapest 'are st.il lintact. _ The Berlin radio said the front is coming closer to Budapest. Bombs shells,’ machine-gun and cannon fire —that is the music of Budapest.

WIDESPREAD DESTRUCTION

LONDON, Dec. 14

Russian guns are -'-keeping up an intense bombardment' of Budapest from the north-east and cast, and one report says big air battles; are in progress. Main Soviet forces are said to be seven miles to the northeast of the capital and 10 miles to the east. ‘■One-third of Budapest lies destroyed by Russian shellfire and Gorman demolition, according Io reports from Berlin,” says the Stockholm correspondent of the “Daily Express.” “Special German demolition squads are at present blowing up buildings and bridges which have escaped shells, bombs, and fire. “About 500.000 citizens of one of Europe’s most beautiful cities are now living in what a. German correspondent describes as ‘an inferno.’ There is no water, no gas, and no electricity. Fire brigades are helpless ro fight the fires which are raging everywhere. The red glow over the citv ’is visible for 50 miles. Air battles are raging day and night over the burning city. Szalasi’s Stormtroops are helping the Germans destroy their own city. lighting has broken out in several quarters of Budapest between the Germans and civilians anxious to prevent their work of destruction.”

POLISH COMMITTEE

LONDON, December 14.

’“lt is now considered likely that the Polish National Liberation Committee will shortly declare itself the Provisional Government of liberated Poland, with Lublin as its temporary capital,” says the diplomatic correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph.” “The Russian Government may wait to see the effect of the move, especially in London, before committing itself to recognition.