JAB TO BICSKE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21607, 9 January 1945, Page 4

JAB TO BICSKE

qerman_prongs ALL-OUT "offensive RUSSIANS HAVE RESERVES (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. > LONDON, Jan. 7. The twin prongs of the German drive along the Danube have jabbed south to the railway junction of Bicske, 18 miles from the western suburbs of Budapest, states Reuter s Moscow correspondent. The enemy is throwing in increasing numbers or troops and tanks originally intended for the defence of Austria in the attempt to relieve tiro Budapest garrison, • It is now an all-out. offensive. The enemy is using Tiger and Panther tanks rushed up from arsenals hidden from the Allied bombs in tire southeastern corner of the Reich; The latest front-line despatches reaching Moscow indicate that the Red Army is preparing to meet a climax assault during the next 24 hours. While the Germans are throwing in every man. it is believed that the Russians have not yet called on their total reserves. Reuter's correspondent in Moscow says the Germans have not yet achieved a break-through towards Budapest and suffered heavy _ losses, €0 tanks at one time, in charging the Soviet positions. The Russians are relying on fire-power from artillery and from low-flying fighters and strafing Stormoviks. ’The battle is being fought at a pace so swift that the infantry have no time to entrench in the frozen soil. Columns of thick smoke rising from the buckled Panzers testifies to the accuracy of the Soviet gunners. The German dead are strewn thickly at the approaches to every sector. It is possible that Marshal Tolbukhin is holding back a powerful force to strike when the German fury is spent. The Germans in Budapest are fighting what they believe to be the last round before the relief force reaches them. Street battles are going on on either side of the city. The Russians are offering individual garrisons the choice of surrender or death.

Powerful Defences

The Moscow correspondent of The Times says that, following the decisive check to their first onslaughts, the Germans are believed _ to be bringing up fresh tank and infantry reserves in the areas on the south bank of the Danube and west of Bicske, which is now the storm centre of the fighting. Soviet storm troops battling through the streets of Budapest have come up against the most powerful strong-points since they broke into the city. The Germans are using tramcars to transfer troops from one sector to another. Soviet planes have already pounced down and riddled a number of them. The Germans have also chopped down 50“<year-old chestnut trees which lined the Budapest boulevards, and are using their trunks as primitive street barricades.

Despatches reaching Moscow stress that hundreds of struggles are making up'the main battle for Budapest. A Moscow communique says that after stiff fighting, Soviet ‘troops evacuated the town of Esztergom. The Soviet troops in Budapest on January 7 fought engagements to clear the city of the enemy and occupied 116 blocks of .houses. North-west and west of Budapest Soviet troops were engaged in repelling attacks by a large force of enemy infantry and tanks trying to break'through to Budapest despite heavy losses. On the northern Danube north of Esztergom So%’iet troops, having broken enemy resistance, advanced more than 12 miles west of the River Hron, occupying a number of-large inhabited localities. The Russians took prisoner 1300 men on January 6 in this area.