FALL OF WARSAW NEAR.

Kaikoura Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 60, 3 August 1944, Page 3

FALL OF WARSAW NEAR.

FIGHTING 127 T__L SUBURBS. RUSSIANS CAPTURE JELGAVA. LONDON, August 1. Marshal Rokossovsky army is closing in on \\ arsaw, and, according to one report, lighting is taking place in lire suburbs of the city. Yesterday was another day of outstanding success for the Russians. Ihree orders of the day were issued Uy Mr Stalin announcing the capture or hundreds of towns and villages. Of chief importance is the occupation of the Latvian railway junction of Jelgava, south-west of Riga, where 2UUO Germans were killed. The full of Jelgava still further narrows the escape gap for enemy troops in Estonia and North Latvia. Although the German High Command had previously reported the evacuation of the Lithuanian capital, Kaunas, a Moscow communique says that the city •‘is being ferociously defended, but the Germans are being cleared out of one street after another.”

Troops of the Third White Russian front have broken through strong enenyy defences west of the Nyeman River, advancing 30 miles in three days. They broadened the breakthrough by 143 miles, and captured three railway junctions and about 1500 lesser places. The rate of continued progress by the Russians is the subject of discussion by military commentators. The commentator of the Daily Telegraph,” Lieut.-General H. G. Martin, expresses the opinion that Warsaw may fall any day, but beyond Warsaw it would be unsafe to reckon on the Red Army averaging more than five mjles a day. He adds: “Even on this reckoning, it will reach the Oder and Breslau by the middle of October, and such a disaster will bring the Third Reich to dissolution. ’ ’