DEATH OF A CITY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21601, 2 January 1945, Page 5

DEATH OF A CITY

LOVELIEST CAPITAL BUDAPEST’S TORMENT NAZIS’ FIGHT TO THE END LONDON, Dec. 29. “German sappers have blown _ up ill the bridges over the Danube linkng Buda and Pest,” states the Britsh United Press’ Moscow correspondent. “The Russians are fighting the last treat battles on the hills where Buda lopes down to the Danube, where es Budapest’s ‘Whitehall.’ “Budapest, one of the loveliest capials in Europe, is dying—going clown o death in a torment of flame am ire with buildings crashing into the treets as the Germans’ dynamite -quads retreat in the face of the relentless Russian advance. The wholeirea around the Royal Palace on the iuda side of the river is ringed with moke and flame. “Crack S.S. troops arc fighting in ■very house to the last. One Gernan battalion trapped in the market square went on fighting and made hrec counter-attacks before finally misting the white flag. The batalion marched out only 90 strong.” “The Germans have attache- - ' booby-traps to gates, doors and \vT lows in a thousand houses. The roc f explosions mingles with the crack ling of flames as building after build : ng leaps into flames, and with the chatter of rifle and machine-gun fire ‘he thump of mortars, and the crack if tank-guns.

“Night brings no rest to the attackers or the defenders. They fight on rom street to street by the light •’rom burning buildings. The German r mve sacrificed the capital of their illy in a last desperate stand, designed to delay the Russian advnno to Austria, but to no effect. Threr Russian columns which have by passed Budapest are converging or Vienna.

Reuter’s Moscow correspondent •-vs that Gyor a fortress town commanding a web of railways only 3 r

ules from the Austrian frontier, is within striking distance of Marshal Tolbukhin’s tanks.- One force is approaching from the south-east, and die other is rolling westward along 'he higher Danube’s southern bank. The Germans have flung in tankforces to delay the approaching columns, and give their army of conscripted workers a few more preciou; hours to fortify the border. Marshal Malinovsky’s men and armour of the Treat northern push may by-pass Oyor in their drive towards Vienna.