LONG BATTLE

Grey River Argus, 16 March 1945, Page 5

LONG BATTLE

FOR EAST PRUSSIA Russians Push Ahead (Rec. 12.35). LONDON, March 15. Dispatches from Moscow stated that Red Army forces had been steadily gaining ground in the p?£t 24 hours in a battle for the elimination of a pocket south-west of Konigsberg. A Reuter correspondent in Moscow, commenting on the protracted battle of East Prussia, expressed the opinion that Russians were fighting a way to victory. In the final round of the struggle the Germans turned every village into a fortress. Fighting has been‘heavy. Progress is slow. The country is sodden after a sudden thaw. Russian guns were blasting Germans out of water-logged trenchess while tanks drive along roads cutting up enemy positions. Rokossovsky’s troops in _the DanzigGdynia area advanced in rain and snow and clinging mist. Russian sappers are struggling day and night to keep Vistula crossings intact under a battering from ice floes. Front-line reports from south of Danzig said roads were unuseable. A Moscow “Pravda” correspondent said: “Never have the fields or loiests of Pomerania seen such numbers of tanks and guns, and such a great, determined, well-organised army. As in East Prussia, Brandenburg and Poland, this avalanche of troops is meeting thousands of liberated men. women and children, besides coumns of German prisoners. lhe correspondent concluded that tne doomed German garrison of blazing Danzig and Gdynia were increasing their attacks, but have not prevented Rokossovsky from gaining more ground over the tangle of canals surrounding the twin ports and entering more of their suburbs. A Soviet communique stated: — Troops of the TJiird White Russian Front south-west of Konigsberg engaged in battles for the destruction of the encircled enemy grouping in East Prussia. They captured a number of inhabited places, including several near Braunsberg and Zinten. Troops in this area have taken more than 2000 prisoners. Fierce fighting continues on the outer ring of defences rotind Danzig and Gdynia. The Russians yesterday captured a railway junction eight miles from Gdynia. The Germans are suffering heavy losses. In one day’s fighting they lost 3000 officers and men, and had 30 tanks and scores of field-guns knocked out. The German News Agency said: Russians are using seven infantry armies, supported by many tank formations, in a new 1 offensive in East Prussia, the focal points "of which are north-westward of Zinten and eastward of Braunsberg. The Germans, under the command of General Rendulic are fighting a tough defensive battle. LULL IN CENTRE CONTINUES. KUSTRIN AREA (Rec. 12.40). LONDON, March 15. There is no news of Marshal Zhukov’s central Oder front, opposite Berlin. An operational silence is being maintained. Moscow reports indicate a number of local gains since the capture of Kustrin.

LONDON. March 14. Floods are hampering the Russians’ pursuit of the Germans after the fall of Kustrin says the British United Press Moscow correspondent. A vast area west of the Kustrin is deeply flooded by the Oder and its tributaries overflowing their banks and also artificially by the Germans opening sluices of canals. The correspondent explains that ingenious technique used by the Red Army helped to account for the German failure to told Kustrin. Soviet planes first dropped petrol drums on the German positions and followed up with incendiaries. The fire which resulted produced an enormous smookescreen under cover of which ground troops were able to approach the fortress and easily knock out enemy firing points. Russian commentators are now openly hinting that the drive through northern Germany is outflanking Berlin. They say the Red Army’s arrival at the immediate approaches of Stettin is a salutary reminder for German troops in the Mecklenburg-Baltic coast ref gion, west of Pomerania. It is pointed out that every German Baltic port, is now within easy range of the Red Air Force, which is bringing up airfields close to the front line masses of infantry and artillery, set free by cleaning up Pomerania and streaming to the Oder, with their vehicles marked “to Stettin, to Berlin.” Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says that over 100 miles of vital line from Kustrin to the approach to Goerlitz, the Germans are digging in and massing troops at high speed. He adds -the Russians are simply massing.

The Soviet News Agency war commentator reports the Russians have cleared the eastern bank of the Oder River over nearly 100 miles between Kustrin and Kammin, with the exception of a German bridgehead at Altdamm. He says the Russians oh the southern end of the front are threatening the German communications to northern Italy. HUNGARIAN STRUGGLE. LONDON, March 14. A Soviet communique said: Russians in Hungary north-east and west of Lake Balaton repelled attacks by tanks and infantry and in this sector knocked out 85 tanks and self-pro-pelled guns. Russians captured a town 75 miles north of Budapest and 55 miles from the Danube. The Exchange Telegraph Moscow correspondent states the fighting around the Lake Balaton region is growing fiercer as the Germans try to find weak spots in the defences. The Russians last week, destroyed 570 tanks. Tolbukhin, south of Budapest, is hurling back frantic German attempts to reach the Danube. (Rec. 12.40). LONDON, March 15. Moscow correspondents state that the German onslaught in Hungary, north-east and east of Lake Balaton, has not slackened. The climax may not have been yet reached. OTHER SECTORS. (Rec. 12.40). LONDON, March 15. A Moscow report said Marshal Koniev’s troops in Breslau reached one of the biggest squares in the burning city. Germans are blasting the biggest buildings into rubble to form road blocks. General Malinovsky with Zvolen in his hands, control’s four important railway,?, and can move on any of five main roads fanning out northwards, westwards, and southwards. Advanced guards on this front are 30 miles from the Nitra Rivei’ w'hich is the next major ba’rrjer ’lt is under 100 miles from Bratislava, and 128 miles from Vienna. CARPATHIAN FRONT RUGBY. March 14. 1 The latest Russians news switches ■ interest from the Baltic seaboard to Czechoslovakia. where Malinovsky’s cpeond Ukrainian Front troops have occupied an important rail junction.

An order of the day by Stalin says the Second Ukrainian Front, overcoming resistance in the Carpathians, to-day occupied the town and important rail junction of Zvolen, a powerful stronghold of German resistance on the River Hron. He added that Moscow was saluting the victory with 12 salvoes from 124 guns. Zvolen. which the Germans call Altsohl. is 100 miles north-east of Bratislav'a. It has a population of some 13,000.