WEAKENED GARRISON

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21605, 6 January 1945, Page 3

WEAKENED GARRISON

REDS HOLD BROAD BELT LONDON, Jan. 4.

Although the Germans have thrown fresh tank units into the Komarno

sector north-west of Budapest, where the enemy is attempting to break through to Budapest and relieve his encircled forces, the belt of territory, 35 miles wide, which the Russians

now hold around the oily is so broad that there is little hope of the Germans pelting through, says the British United Press’ Moscow correspondent. The correspondent adds: “It is now believed that the Germans and Hungarians in Budapest increased the ferocity of their resistance in the past lew days because they had advance information about the imminent thrust in the Komarno area, which was designed to relieve them. I-low-ever, the gains made by the German tank divisions in the Komarno area are comparatively slight when viewed against the background o£ the battle as a whole. “Thousands of dead Germans lie on the battlefields of the Komarno area, as mute and terrible evidence of the desperation with which the German commanders threw their forces against the massed Russian batteries, which held the German attack. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says that the German rescue bid from ilie Komarno area apparently came too late. It is nine days since the Russians made the initial penetration into Budapest., and the German garrison in the city has since been critically weakened. Fighting in City Streets Red Army tanks and sappers inside Budapest are co-operating in clearing a path through the German i barricades blocking the broad avenues leading to the city's centre. The Russians are reported to have surrounded tire ancient Buda citadel on Blocksberg Hill, on the west bank of the Danube. A powerful German group is clinging to this key position. An indication of the manner _ in which tiic full realisation of its plight is being kept from the Budapest garrison is the fact that Hungarians captured yesterday discovered that the city was surrounded only when they laid down their arms. The Free Hungarian radio lias declared that in addition to the pitched battles around the Hungarian Parliament Building, there are also struggles raging around the Slock Exchange and the High Court of Justice. all of which are situated in the centre of Post. The radio added that only a small part of Budapest remained in German hands. The Moscow radio declared: “The final annihilation of tiic German forces'in the Budapest cauldron is a matter of riavs. The Germans, in the battles for Budapest, have lost more than 10.000 killed, 30,000 wounded, and M2!) captured.” A Soviet communique says that the Russians in the Budapest area, continuing tlie battle for the clearance of the city, have captured a further 277 blocks of buildings.