RUSSIAN SIEGES

Grey River Argus, 19 March 1945, Page 5

RUSSIAN SIEGES

AT FOUR CITIES Hungarian Battle Eases (Rec. 8.30). LONDON, March 18. A supplementary communique at Moscow stated: Russian forces, advancing along the east bank of the Oder River, captured Frauenhoif, live miles from Stettin. Three thousand Germans were killed in the Stettin sector on Friday. Russian forces at Breslau, surmounting barricades, forced the Lohe River, and after hand-to-hand lighting, captured a large motor repair works. We shot down ten enemy transport iilanes in the past two days attempting to supply. the garrison of Breslau. The Red Air Force on Friday attacked military targets in Breslau, a rail junction at Ostrava, and fires and explosions were caused at both places. Moscow radio stated: The Germans used ten panzer divisions and six infantry divisions in a series of attacks in the Lake Balaton area in Hungary. The Germans in some sectors flung in two or three hundred tanks at one time. They now arc only able to attack on narrow sectors with small forces. (Rec. 10.40). LONDON, March 18. A Moscow communique said: Russian forces on Saturday south-west of Konigsberg, continued liquidation of the East Prussian German grouping, and captured a number of inhabited places, including Brandenburg, and took prisoner 700 Germans. Russians in the Stettin area continued liquidation of the German bridgehead on the east bank of the Oder, and captured a number of places. Troops of the First White Russian Command in this area on Thursday and Friday took prisoner more than 2000, including the commander of a German infantry division. Russians in the Breslau area continued liquidation of encircled enemy, groups. BATTLE OF STETTIN. (Rec. 10.5>. LONDON, March 18. Correspondents in Moscow stated:— A great battle is raging around Stettin with unabated fury. Marshal Zhukov’s immediate objectives are becoming discernible. The latest drive is designed to wipe out the German Docket east of the Lower Oder, and to attempt to seize remaining bridges across the river. Altda'mm, a strongly fortified town on the southern bank of the Oder, four miles from Stettin, has virtually been outflanked by the capture of Bruenken, three _ miles south of Stettin. The Russians in the drive also cut a railway road between Altdamm and Stettin. German commentators stated Russians broke into inner defences to some depth. They report a heavy tank battle between the Oder and the Buchheide Forest, south of S'tettin. MAIN BATTLE IN. HUNGARY. '(Rec. 8.40). LONDON, March 18. A Reuter correspondent in Moscow said: There is a great tight on the plains of south-west Hungary. It slowly is swinging in Tolbukhin’s favour. Hitler’s massed panzers have been beaten to a standstill after 12 days of violent counter-attacks. .There is at present a stalemate on this battlefield north-east of Lake Balaton, where the Germans in the last few days lost tanks. Moscow radio said: The Red Army has killed more than 20,000 Germans, and destroyed more than 600 tanks in the 13 days of battle in the neighbourhood of Lake Balaton. It threatens southern areas of Germany with added danger, from a German viewpoint, of a link-up between the Red Army and Allied forces in Italy. The German High Command mounted its Balaton stroke gradually and secretly, moving the troops at night. They were intended, by means of blitzkrieg tactics, to split the Russian forces and paralyse the Russian striking power by reaching the Danube. The Germans had an excellent reason for attaching importance to this operation. It led them to disregard the position on other: fronts. They, still are receiving hundreds of thousands of tons of steel and oil from Western Hungary, from where their main communication lines lead to Austria and South Germany, where the principal steelworks, arms, and motor factories are situated. Moreover, dozens ot Germany’s main industrial plants have been moved to those areas, which were considered safe from air raids, it is believed Austria houses Heinkel and Messerschmitt factories, and pare of the Krupp organisation. The Germans failed to achieve a surprise. One Russian formation, at the peak of battle, withstood 34 attacks in three days. The ferocity of the onslaught now has considerably abated.

EAST PRUSSIA BATTLES CONTINUE. (Rec. 10.40). LONDON, March 18. Moscow correspondents said Marshal Rokossovsky is encountering strong opposition along the outer perimeter of the Danzig-Gdynia fortified zone. There the Germans a're established behind formidable anti-tank ditches, trenches, and staggered pulboxes. Russian tanks and infantry stormed and captured Zuekau, an important centre on the main DanzigZoppal road. Another column captured Espenkrug, four miles from the Baltic coast, north of Zoppal. These gains indicate Rokossovsky to be near splitting the Gdynia-Danzig grouping. Moscow “Red Star said: The area held by the Germans in Konigsberg is only a few miles in lengtn and breadth. Fresh fires broke out inside the city, which lies under a heavy ball of smoke. A German commentator described the bitter fighting at Kolberg. He claimed that 64,000 women and children have been evacuated by sea under the fire of Russian artillery. The German News Agency stated: At Kolberg the German garrison is making a suicide stand. ■ The place is blazing from end to end. Front-line correspondents report that the garrison has rejected two demands for surrender. Kolberg will light to the last cartridge. The Red Army brought up now reinforcements, and compressed a grimly-resisting handful ot German defenders in the harbour area, where fierce house-to-house fighting is raging. Russian artillery, is systematically pulverising what remains of the town in German hands! The German News Agency says:— Russians north-east of Szekesfehervar, after a violent drumfire barrage, launched on Friday an offensive on a • wide front. One wedge of attack was directed against Szekesfehervar. It broke down in face of the German artillery barrage. A Russian penetration farther north was sealed off.