RUINOUS BATTLE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21603, 4 January 1945, Page 5

RUINOUS BATTLE

NAZI-HELD BUDA DESTRUCTION RIFE RED ARMY~ARTILLERY (10 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 3. Dispatches from Budapest to the Moscow Izvestia state that the Russian troops who have entered the city from the west and tlie east are steadily and methodically fighting their way towards each other. A considerable part of the city is now in Russian hands. The Germans' are burning, blowing up and otherwise destroying everything behind them. All the shop windows in Budapest's commercial area are broken, and tlie contents oi the shops have been sent to the Germans or destroyed. Tlie Germans have hurled out goods and furniture from buildings which they have converted into strong-points. The German News Agency report! that Russian shell-fire against Budapest is incessant. The Red Army is bringing up more and more artillery. Savage tank battles have swayed to and fro for many hours. Russian troops have liberated aboW three-quarters of Buda and have made big infiltrations into Pest, says Reuter’s Moscow correspondent, who adds: “What, looks like the mair clash before the Austrian frontier was flaring up to-day south-east oi Komarom, 90 miles from Vienna. The Germans here have thrown in their biggest tank armada since the battle of Debreczen. The British United Press correspondent reports that the Russians reached the banks, of the Danube at several points inside Budapest after the Germans blew up the great railway bridge, one of the finest in Europe, between Pest and Buda. One claw of the multi-armed Russian pineel's struck upstream along the Buda embankment from this bridge and slashed deeply into the zone between the Danube and Citadel Hill. The Russians in Pest are driving the Germans towards the Houses of Parliament and the Stock Exchange, and in another Pest district they have surrounded and passed the Budapest University. “In this drive the Russians are ruthlessly exterminating the German machine-gun crews at the bayonet point. The Germans have converted the encircled university • into a fortress, which the Red Army's heavy guns are battering to pieces. The Germans are fanatically obeying an order to die at their posts'rather than surrender,” tlie correspondent states. "Now that the Russians have penetrated right inside the city, tlie Germans have adopted a new plan of holding buildings on strategic corners, whence they pour a hail of fire down the converging streets. The Russians have dug up many German mines in the- fiewly-occupied areas, and have rushed them to the forward front-line, where their sappers are using them to blow up Germanoccupied buildings. There are incredible scenes of chaos in the debris-choked streets of Budapest. The-Germans are setting fire to more buildings, and trying to throw up a barrier of flame between themselves and the Russians. Vital Western Tcrrrain Fierce fighting continues in Budapest, but dispatches from Moscow do not reveal any exact details of the Red Army progress. Moscow is also maintaining silence on the fighting west and north-west of Budapest. The German News Agency stated that heavy fighting is going on in the vital area' between Budapest and the Austrian frontier. Tlie News Agency added that major Russian formations have penetrated the German lines, but claimed that the penetrations were later narrowed down.

The Berlin radio commentator, Major von Hammer, said that the Russian thrusts west of Felsogal and between the Slovakian border and the Ipoly River have broken into the German lines at some points. A Soviet communique says that the Russians in Budapest have continued the liquidation of the encircled enemy and have captured a further 232 blocks of houses in the eastern pari of the city and 63 in the western part. The Russians north-east of Komarno repulsed strong enemy tank and infantry attacks, and inflicted heavy losses in men and material.