IN SOUTH HUNGARY

Grey River Argus, 1 December 1944, Page 5

IN SOUTH HUNGARY

RUSSIAN ATTACK Likely to Force Enemy to New Line [Aust. & N.Z. Press Association] (Rec. 1.10.) LONDON, Nov. 30. According to Moscow press correspondents, Marshal Tolbukhin, in an offensive in Southern Hungary, west, of the Danube, is giving fresh indications that the German Command will be forced into a new defence line along the south-eastern front. This line may run from the area of Trieste. through Vienna, across the Bohemian Plateau to Warsaw, and to East Prussia. More and more Russians are crossing the Danube, where semi-permanent bridgeheads, strongly protected from the air, are now established. “Battles continuing’! was a terse flash from Marshal Tolbukhin’s Danube bridgehead today. Reports on the course of battle so far make it plain that the Germans are sparing no effort to hold up, j the Russians from fanning out across western Hungary. M. Stalin, in an order to Marshal Tolbukhin, announced that troops' of the Third Ukrainian Front, having gone over to the offensive, crossed the Danube north of the River Drava, broke through the German defences on the western bank of the Danube, and advanced 25 miles, enlarging the break-through up to 95 miles in width. In the course of the offensive Soviet troons occupied in Hungary the following towns and important centres of communication: Pecs, Bataszek and Mohacs, and took in the fighting over 300 other localities. Mohacs is 100 miles south of Budapest. Bataszek is 16 miles north of Mohac?,.i and Pecs is 23 miles west of Mohacs. | The Russians occupying Pecs and Bataszek also fought a way into 330 • other places, including fourteen rail- I way towns. Fighting elsewhere is; onlv of local importance. The Times Moscow correspondent j says: The Russians have brought into | play the right wing of General Fet- | rov’s l forces in Eastern Slovakia. 1 Russians and Czechs 'are moving to- 1 wards Presov. The fall of Strophov ; and Svidnik, about 10 miles to the * north-westward, last night followed penetrations of lines on which the Germans have consolidated strongly after being forced from the Carpathians. The Russians are widening the breach torn farther south three or four days ago. Russians ar e increasing pressure west of Uzhprod in the water-logged valley of the Dobrog and its tributaries, where Germans are floundering in an attempt to save forces for the defence of Kosice. They lost a battalion hereabouts yesterday. To Petrov’s left new thrusts 1 are making progress- from Hungary. Russians have shifted, substantial forces over the Ti?a to the Dobrog River and the Czechoslovak frontier. _ There is firmer ground ahead, dominated by the frontier town of Satoral J’aushely, the fall of which will open the way for an advance to Kosice complementary • to the one in progress from the | north-east. <

Yugoslav headojiarters announced that in western Serbia Yugoslav? are in control of the whole area' to the approaches to Kraljevo, 75 miles south of Belgrade. In Montenegro they are 20 miles west of Scutari. Successful actions have also. been fought in Slovenia and Dalmatia. RUSSIAN ADVANCE IN NORWAY. ENEMY HERDS NORWEGIANS. LONDON, November 29. Germany rejected a Swedi?h proposal that inhabitants of Northern Norway should be evacuated to Sweden. Sweden refused a request from the Norwegian Quisling Government for evacuation of Norwegians via Sweden to Southern Norway, and insisted that refugees remain in Sweden. An Associated' Press Stockholm correspondent reports: The Swedish Foreign Minister, M. Gunther, . informed Parliament of these decisions. Swedish public opinion is aroused by the Nazi policy, of terror and scorched earth in Northern Norway, Some sections of the Press demanded a virtual break with Germany, unless she acquiesce in the Swedish effort to help the Norwegians. After M. Gunther’s statement, a delegation from all Swedish parties asked the Government to do everything to help the Norwegians if it means taking the greatest risk. The Norwegian Telegraph Agency, quoting a man who left Tromso a fortnight ago, said: “In Northern Norway, along the sole highway, leading from Kirkenes to Mosjon, 900 miles to the south-west, civilians are fleeing on foot before the German troops retreating from the Russians. Thousands of Norwegians have already died, and thousands more face certain death. S'.S'. men following the refugees are burning the countryside. They are shooting Norwegians who refuse to leave. Tromso, which is the most important city in northern Norway, is due for destruction. The Germans ar e reported to aim to devastate before Christmas all Norway north of Mosjon, where they intend to make a stand. A railway reaches Mosjon, therefore the Germans can rely on supplies from the south.” WAR WITH JAPAN? ""LONDON, Nov.’ 23 Marshal Voroshilov, who was yesterday relieved of his duties as a member of the Russian Defences Council, has according to the Budapest radio been appointed Russian C'ommander-in-Chief in the Far East, and has already taken up the post. t The “Daily* Express” says: Marshal Voroshilov, Stalin’s old comrade-in-arms, will shortly b e associated with a new war development that the Soviet Union contemplates. The Soviet Defence Council has to extend its activities in other directions, as indicated in M. Stalin’s recent, pronouncement that. “Japan’s plans make her no less an aggressor than her partner, Germany.” .