RED ARMY REPORTED VERY ACTIVE IN EAST GERMANY AND BALTIC

Grey River Argus, 18 February 1949, Page 5

RED ARMY REPORTED VERY ACTIVE IN EAST GERMANY AND BALTIC

BERLIN, February 15. German newspaper reports to-day claimed that the Russians were conducting extensive troop movements in their zone of Germany and staging combined air and submarine manoeuvres in the Eastern Baltic. The Associated Press correpondenit states that these reports were published by the “Neue Zeitung,” the official German paper of the Ameriman Military Government. They could not be officially confirmed. The paper also claimed to have learned from refugee Balts that, the Russian . were constructing huge new military installations in the Baltic Republics with “remarkable haste.” Soviet troop movements near Mecklenburg were conducted by night in strict secrecy and with efforts made to veil them by the dispersal of units. The paper stated that the Russians had most of their occupation strength in the immediate hinterland of the Baltic Sea. The strongest concentrations were near the Soviet zone’s border with the British occupation zone. The paper went on: “The relatvely large number of Soviet Marine forces in Cecklenburg, estimated at 5000, should be noted. German fishermen report that the Soviet was conducting extensive combined submarine and air manoeuvres in the. western Baltic. Refugees also report that in Estonia adn Latvia large subterranean airports and petrol depots are being constructed.” United States intelligence officials said they believed that the reports were exaggerated.