NEISSE RIVER LINE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21646, 23 February 1945, Page 3

NEISSE RIVER LINE

SOVIET "ASSAULT FIGHT FOR CROSSINGS STRUGGLE FOR GUBEN (10 a.m.) LONDON. Feb. 22. A hotly contested last-moving battle is going on to-day within a few miles of the Spree-Oder Canal southeast of Berlin as Russian mobile unit? strike to force the Neisse River, says Reuter’s correspondent in Moscow. The Russians are attacking on one stretch between Gabon and the Oder Rivers south-east of Furstbenburg where the canal joins the river. The Neisse River line is aflame along almost the whole 60-mile stretch from Guben to Gorlitz. Marshal Kornev's troops are storming up to the Neisse River in all sectors between Guben and Gorlitz with both of these towns now under heavy pressure. Fierce hand-to-hand clashes are reported from the Guben area. Russian tanks are leading sallies to the eastern outskirts of the town.

The Associated Press’ correspondent says that Marshal Koniev’s tanks have reached the Neisse River at a number of places in the region of Leippa and Priebus. Colder weather and brighter skies over a large part of Central Europe have brought better conditions for the Red Army. The long lines which, in recent weeks, have fought snow, slush and mud are now moving on over firmer roads. Weather and Zhukov The better ground conditions should enable Marshal Zhukov to finish his consolidation. The Germans are maintaining heavy counter-attacks south-east of Stettin in an attempt to hold this flank back from the Baltic. The German News Agency reports that the Russian armies east of Berlin are poised for attack. Marshal Zhukov in the centre is trying to clear the field for an all-out effort by extending his bridgeheads across the Oder River, particularly at Kienitz, where he has secured a fairly wide though rather shallow footing. Other Russian bridgeheads between Furstenberg and Kustrin are still too small to take the masses of material required for an all-out attack, and Marshal Zhukov lias a relatively small number of tanks across the river. Marshal Rokossovsky is maintaining the speed of his push against Danzig in clear, sunny weather which has brought out swarms of Stormovik bombers. His advance promises to bring him into the south-western corner of Danzig territory, leaving Gdynia and Danzig City ready to fall into a new pocket. The main German pocket in East Prussia, south-west of Konigsberg, has now been reduced to such an extent that Russian heavy guns on the flanks are able to shoot right across it from end to end. The Russian artillery and air force are pounding

the trapped enemy from three sides, and the enemy’s central stronghold of Zinten is under lire. The German New Agency’s commentator, Major von Hammer, announced that the Germans gave up Zinten after the heaviest lighting along the southern front of the East Prussian defence ring.