RUTHENIA FRONT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21549, 31 October 1944, Page 3

RUTHENIA FRONT

SOVIET PROGRESS BATTLE ROUND LIBAU 35 RUSSIAN™DIVISIONS (10.30 a.m.) LONDON. Oct. 30. The Russian troops are streaming across Ruthenia at a speed comparable with the march across the Ukrainian plains, says the Exchange and Telegraph Agency’s correspondent in Moscow. The Red Army is maintaining the speed of its advance, despite the lack of roads and bridges, which were blasted by the Germans. The Germans are being given no time to plunder or burn as they retreat. The Russians are bringing in columns of prisoners. The British United Press’ correspondent in Moscow reports that the first snows are falling in the central sector of the Russian front. It is bitterly cold on the northern front and in the mountain areas southward, mechanised and air operations being hampered. Winter equipment is being issued to the Red Army. The German radio says: "The Russians have established a bridgehead at the great Tisa bend, into which they have thrown very strong forces. An attack must be expected shortly from the bridgehead.” The German News Agency states that the Russians have thrown at least 35 infantry divisions and lank corps into the battle around Libau.

Marsnal Tito’s communique states: “Yugoslav units have reached the outsKirts of Zagreb. The greater part of Slavonia has been freed. The entire Dalmatian coastline from Zara to Herzegovina is in our hands.” Marsnal Malinovsky’s forces northeast of Nyiregyhaza have linked up with General Petrov’s army, which captured Cop, says Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. This link-up gives the Red Army a solid front right across Hungary and paves the way for an advance against Budapest.