NEARER DRESDEN

Grey River Argus, 16 February 1945, Page 5

NEARER DRESDEN

KONIEV SPEEDS UP ENEMY COLLAPSE IN SOUTH May Draw Berlin Defenders [Aust. & N.Z. Press Association.! LONDON, Feb. 15 A Soviet communique stated: Marshal Koniev’s forces occupied Neuhammer, on the east bank of the Queis, 40 miles north-west of L’egnitz, and nine and a hilf miles west of the Bober River, also Beutneu. Glogau is surrounded. Russian forces established a major bridgehead on the Oder at Reitwin, on the west bank of the Oder. 10 miles north ot Frankfurt. Marshal Koniev s northern armies captured seven key towns Neustradtel, Neusaltz, Sprottau, Jauer, Striegau, Freystadt ano Goldberg): Neusaltz is on the Oder 100 miles from Berlin. Berlin reports indicated this thrustalong the '.vest bank of the Oder is 30 miles broad and stated fighting was noing on north of Sommerfield, 70 miles from Berlin. Russian tank spearheads had penetrated to Sorau (five miles inside the ■Brandenburg border). Russian guns can be heard in Stettin. Forces of Zhukov and Rokossovsky are moving towards the Baltic along an unbroken front almost in a straight line 165 miles from the suburbs of Stratgurt to Marienburg. Koniev’s push north-west beyond the Oder is approaching the storehouse of German war reserves southeast and south of Berlin. A new Soviet drive towards Danzig is developilng. Berlin reports said Red Army troops advancing along the PolishBrandenburg border, reached an area 65 miles south-west of Danzig, where breaches were made in German positions. (Rec. 1.20). LONDON, Feb. 15.

A Moscow report says: Marshal Koniev’s troops, after a smashing advance of 22 miles, reached the Niesse River, about 53 miles from Dresden. Moscow “Pravda” says: It is believed they are fighting for bridgeheads across the river. Russian forces simultaneously launched an assault on Gorlitz.

Reuter’s correspondent in Moscow stated: News of a Russian advance to the Niesse River, bringing Russians to the last approaches to Gorlitz, came as a bait from the blue, since the latest Russian communique did not indicate any such dramatic advance in this sector.

Reuter’s military correspondent m London says: Koniev’s swift advance to the Niesse, the last major water barrier before Dresden, suggests German resistance on this front ha's collapsed., The speed of the Russian thrust can only thus be explained. Koniev since Monday has crossed the Bober and Quies rivers, and to-day is preparing to cross the Niesse. The Elbe River, whereon Dresden stands, now looms as an immediate objective of the Russian drive.

A late front-line despatch stated the penetration to the Niesse River has been made by Russian mobile units. The units reached the Niesse River near Gorlitz.

Moscow correspondents state Koniev's troops to-day are within sight of the frontier of Saxony. Reuter's Moscow ■ correspondent says: There has been almost an explosive expansion of Koniev’s line south-east of Bunzlau, resulting in a considerable broadening of his main front against Saxony. A steady stream of reinforcements, tanks, and guns is moving across the Oder, and Russian-occupied territory beyond that river has become a tremendous and almost self-contained base for Koniev’s advancing army. Huge dumps of war material are piling up hourly, feeding the front over rapidlylengthening communication lines.

. All Associated Press correspondent 1 in Moscow says: Koniev’s tanks and cavalry are approaching the frontier of Saxony to-day as towering columns of smoke rise from that province’s industrial centres, which were blasted by Allied air forces. Meanwhile, on Koniev’s northern flank, he is threatening to merge his active frpnt with that of Zhukov west of the Oder. The Red Army there has brought a new, terrible problem, for the German High Command. To meet Koniev’s push coming up through the lake region south-east of Berlin, the Germans must shift heavy new forces to this area at the expense of other defence zones protecting the capital, while a threat at the same time is rapidly developing against Dresden. The Germans are offering desperate resistance to Koniev’s drive against Grunberg in a fork between the Oder and Bober rivers, for it is here 'that he threatens to link up with Zhukov for what th e Germans fear will be the direct menace to Berlin. The Red Army to-day is less than nine miles from Grunberg, after repulsing panzer counter-blows on roads leading towards it. Another Russian group’ from Koniev’s northern flank, which struck out north-westerly from the captured town of Freystadt, promises to outflank Grunberg. The Russians appear'to have split the German line through this sector, resulting in great . enemy confusion. Both the Russians and Germans are silent about the Frankfurt salient. There is every reason to believe vital manoeuvring is going on behind terrific shelling which Zhukov’s artillery is keeping up on this front.

FALL OF BUDAPEST (Rec. 8.45) LONDON, Feb. 15. Moscow radio, in a word picture of the last hours in Budapest—once one of Europe’s most beautiful capitals, stated: The retreating Germans dynamited or burned the finest buildings. They set fire to the Ministerial Palace and when hundreds of people rushed to try and extinguish the blaze, Germans opened fire with automatic rifles. t When Russians broke through to the centre of the city they found nothing but burnt-out shells of buildings, and bodies of inhabitants shot by the Germans. Tens of thousands of peaceful citizens were shot for no reason, said the radio. Not only did the enemy destroy factories but many private homes. People able to return found their homes looted. Crowds of spectatois on the other side of the Danube watched the final stage of the battle in old

Buda. Germans clung obstinately to the big Ministerial buildings, and Russians had to fight their way to roofs, through floor after floor. Others went underground chasing the enemy along tunnels that date from the Turkish occupation. In some places they run for two or three miles below the city. The Red Army’s occupation of Budapest liberates the fifteenth European capital formerly in enemy hands. It was the strongest of Hitler’s satellite capitals. Five capitals, not counting Berlin, remain to be freed —The Hague, Prague, Vienna, Oslo and Copenhagen.