BUDAPEST DOOMED

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 December 1944, Page 5

BUDAPEST DOOMED

RUSSIANS TAKE AIRFIELD

FIGHTING IN SUBURBS

LONDON, Dec. 27.

Russian forces are fighting their way into Budapest. The latest reports from Moscow say that last night Soviet infantry was fighting in the western suburbs of Buda and pressing forward towards the Danube and Pest, which lies on the other side of the river. German guns are replying to Red Army artillery from the heart of the capital. The Budapest airport is now in Russian hands. Inside Budapest the commander of the German garrison has issued an order calling on the population to keep calm. The order threatens the extermination of all civilians found carrying arms. Spearheads of another Russian force, 30 miles west of Budapest, are heading towards Vienna. Unofficial reports say that spearheads of the Russian forces which captured Esztergom, yesterday, are approaching Gyor, is one of Hungary’s main cities and only 23 miles from the frontier of Austria. The British Associated Press correspondent in Moscow says: Russian forces stormed high ground in western suburbs of Budapest, gaining final positions after striking a death blow against the encircled enemy garrison in the fapital. Half-a-dozen Russian thrusts made headway into the Buda district on the west bank of the Dan-, übe, and the Red Army massed heavy artillery on western heights dominating the whole city. Meanwhile other formidable Russian forces, now ranged along the Danube west of Esztergom, have almost linked up with Marshal Malinovsky’s drive along the Hron River, farther north, for the joint drive towards Braislava and Vienna. The actual gap between the two armies is estimated as under ten miles.

Reuter’s Moscow correspondent reports: Budapest is becoming a living hell, with Russian guns rising to a steady drumbeat on the outskirts. German batteries are crashing out from positions in the heart of the city. Soviet planes sweep over the city. Outside the city enemy dead and smashed equipment are strewn about in profusion recalling the Red Army’s big encirclement strokes in the Ukraine and Rumania.

GERMAN DEMOLITIONS

(Rec. noon.) .LONDON, Dec. 27. Street fighting is raging in the western suburbs of Budapest, which lie under a pall of smoke, broken by shooting columns of flame, says Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. Tolbukin is driving his way from the west through the streets of ancient Buda towards the modern city of Pest. Malinovsky, on the East, is believed to be poised ready to strike in a great co-ordinated assault. The correspondent adds that Tolbukink tank forces have begun a new thrust north-west of Budapest in the direction of Gyor, 25 miles from the AusIrian border.

The British United Press Moscow correspondent says the battle for Budapest is not going to be easy. The Germans have been ordered to hole out as long as possible to delay the Red Army’s western advance. The Germans are blowing up and setting fire to public and private buildings, railway yards, and other installations. There is a constant roar of explosions above the din of gunfire and bombing.

FLOODING EAST PRUSSIA

RUGBY, December 26

“The Russians are concentrating huge forces of artillery in East Prussia, where they face fortifications more formidable, perhaps, than anything yet known on the Eastern Front,” writes a Moscow correspondent. “It is expected that the Germans will Hood entire districts ol East Prussia in an attempt to hamper the Soviet offensive. The fortified zone of this area abounds in rivers, lakes, and canals, with a system of specially constructed dams and sluices by which torrents of water can be released at short notice.