HITLER’S CITADEL

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 March 1945, Page 5

HITLER’S CITADEL

RED ARMY’S THREAT ■ I-.' ? r DANZIG BATTLE MOUNTING LONDON, March 23. A British United Press correspondent in Moscow stated that the Red Army troops, massed under the command of Marshal Kqniev, to-day are mounting the first big threat to Hitler’s citadel, the so-called “Keep,” bounded on the north by the Czechoslovakian mountain range. Koniev’s forces made a break-through west and south of Oppeln, which was captured. This covers the flank of any force attacking in the direction of Moravakaostrav and the Morava Gap leading between the White Carpathians and the Moravian Heights to Vienna. Farther west, under a mile and a-half from the Czech frontier, Russian forces threaten one of the main trunk railways to Prague at a point ten miles west of Neustadt, and are also within striking distance of the Breslau-Prague highway. Moscow remains silent on German reports that Tolbukin’s forces’broke through north-west of Budapest. Marshal Koniev’s troops are advancing towards the Bohemian Mountains on a 75-mile front. They have crossed the Neisse River seven miles north of Neisse, hot on the heels of broken German units. This is reported by Moscow Press correspondents. Storm units are fighting in the streets of Neisse after capturing Stephansdorf, three miles north-east of the city. Other columns are menacing Leobschutz, Ziegenhals, and Ratibor. Main Russian forces and tanks and shock troops striking westward through mountain country southward across the Czechoslovak border already have outflanked Marasvkaostrava. Germans in this area are using the old Czech border fortifications, as well as their own formidable defence lines. The going is hard.

SHATTERING DEFEAT. A shattering defeat of the enemy in the Oppeln area has spread confusion over a broad sector, and paved a way for Koniev’s tanks to surge through. A German rail road junction, Frankenstein, is proving a formidable obstacle. The enemy yesterday launched short sporadic counterattacks with tanks and self-propelled guns, as deep as ten miles east of Frankenstein. Russians beat back the attacks. Now they probably are within shelling distance of the town. Red Army units to westwards reached the Frankenstein-Ottmachau highway. A Russian communique stated: Red Army forces entered Weissendorf two and a-half miles from. Gdynia. A Moscow “Pravda” report said: Russian artillery was stopping German counter-attacks from woods around Danzig. Russians are firing multibarrelled mortars at Danzig. South-west of Konigsberg a German tank division lost most of its material in forcing a way from the pocket, also the Herman Goering Division.

■ According to a German military spokesman, 16 Red Army divisions on Thursday further stepped up powerful attacks on both sides of Danzig Bay. Russians stormed forward in wave after wave against Gdynia and Zoppol, but they did not succeed in breaking through to the coast. EVE OF BERLIN ASSAULT

(Rec. 11.10 a.m.) LONDON, March 23. On the eve of the all-out assault on Berlin, Marshal Zhukov sent the following message to workers whe have supplied planes to his forces: — “Victory is near; we are doing everything to hasten it.” The Associated Press Moscow correspondent says that Red Army units have driven close to Ziegenhals. Big guns have opened up against the city’s defences, which are located on sharply rising hills west of the city limits. Another force is moving on Ziegenhals from Neustadt. The Russians south-west of Ziegenhals entered several suburbs of Leobschultz, hitting hardest from the captured village of Groonig, two miles eastward.

The Exchange Telegraph’s Moscow correspondent says that observers in Moscow expect Marshal Koniev’s latest break-through to speed up an all-out attack on Berlin in the near future.

“Red Star” says that Koniev’s victory completes the encirclement and annihilation of six enemy army groups, in which the Germans lost 60,000 prisoners alone. Extremely heavy artillery fire is pouring into enemy-held fortifications of Stettin, and dive-bombers are adding death and destruction to the fortress, reports the Exchange Telegraph’s Moscow correspondent. Large fires have broken out in the city and port, and thick smoke is rising all day and night from the conflagrations. The Russian troops can clearly see tall buildings in the centre of the city when wind clears the smoke from time to time. “Red Star” says one of two lighthouses guiding the way into the great harbour of Stettin was put out o.' action by Russian artillery. The remaining lighthouse is helping German ships to sneak into the port a night, but Russian gunshot is noi permitting a single ship to pass in the daytime. Bodies of enemy sailors litter the eastern shore. RUSSIANS REACH GOLZOW (Recd. 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, Mar. 21. Marshal Zhukov’s forces opposite Berlin have thrust forward to reach Golzow, seven miles west of Kustrin and 33 miles east of Berlin’s outskirts. According to the Berlin radio, quoting a front-line reporter, “six Red Army rifle divisions and two tank brigades, after a terrific artillery drumfire lasting one and a half hours, managed to penetrate our front and the spearheads reached Golzow. An all-out battle is continuing.” A German military spokesman declared that several Russian rifle divisions and an armoured brigade today launched a large attack against Kustrin from the east and north. “Kustrin was temporarily cut off from communication with the west, but contact was re-established. The Fortress remains in German hands, but fighting is still raging.” GERMANS FOUND HANGED LONDON, March 23. German soldiers and civilians were found hanged on makeshift gallows when the Russians entered Altdamn near Stettin. Placards attached to soldiers’ bodies read: “I fought badly.” On the corpses of the civilians the placards read: “I was hanged because I evacuated.”

“Izvestia” says that recently the Russians found an order from Hitler which said that German troops who left their positions should be shot immediately.