EAST PRUSSIA

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 31, 5 January 1945, Page 4

EAST PRUSSIA

While the Russians are hammering the Germans from Budapest, and Europe's most beautiful city is being systematically destroyed by the euemy, there is an ominous quiet on the East Prussian front from whe.nce it was expected a few months ago the Soviet armies would be driving thenway through the most sacred of German soil. Expectations of an offensive, have been heightened

recently by the announcement thut the Russian forces are grouped for it, and that the date and plan are known to the Soviet's allies. A few days ago a Moscow con-espondent described the Russians' huge concentration of artillery in East Prussia against fortifications more formidable, perhaps, than anything yet known on the Eastern Front. These fortifications are strengthened by natural barriers such as rivers, lakes, and canals, with dams and sluices from which torrents of water can be released at short notice. This description .emphasises the vast strength of the German defences which rest on the sea in the north and extend through the chain of waterways to the south. If the Russians are to penetrate these defences they must force the Insterburg Gap, which was the scene of fighting before winter came to slow it down. Whether there will be a wiuter offensive in East Prussia can only be determined by the Soviet High Command which laid its plans in the autumn. It may be delayed to the spring until conditions are more favourable, but in. any event delay to any extent seems unlikely, because vast Russian armies wait before East,Prussia for the guns to sound the advance and the Soviet does not keep its forces idle.