ENEMY DRIVE FAILS

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

ENEMY DRIVE FAILS

!N0 RELIEF FOR BUDAPEST RUSSIAN GRIP ON CITY (N.Z. Press Association.—Copyright.) (Ilec. 11.35 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 4. Although the Germans have thrown fresh tank units into fhe Komarno sector north-west of Budapest, where the enemy is attempting to break through to Budapest and relieve his encircled forces, the British United Press correspondent in Moscow says the belt of territory 35 miles wide the Russians now hold around the city is so broad that there is little hope of the Germans getting through. The correspondent adds that it is now believed that ■ the Germans and Hungarians in Budapest" have increased the ferocity if their resistance in tin past few days because they had advance information about the imminent thrust in the Komarno area which was designed to relieve them. However, tha gains made by the German tank divisions in the Komarno area are comparatively slight when viewed against the background of the battle as a whole.* Thousands of dead Germans lie in the battlefields in the Komarno area as mute and terrible evidence of the desperation with which the German commanders threw their forces against the massed Russian batteries which held the German attack. Renter's Moscow correspondent says the German rescue bid from the Komarno area apparently came too late. It is nine days since the Russians made their initial penetration of Budapest and the German garrison in the city has since been critically weakened. Red Army tanks and sappers inside Budapest arc co-operating in clearing a path through German barricades blocking the broad avenues leading to the citv's centre. . \

The Russians are reported to have surrounded the ancient Buda Citadel on Blocksberg Hill, on the west bank of the Danube. A powerful German' group is clinging to this key position,

NO NEWS FOR GARRISON. An indication of the manner in which full realisation of its plight is being kept from the Budapest garrison is tho fact that Hungarians captured yesterday discovered tho city 6urrounded only when they laid down their arms.

The Free Hungarian radio declared that in addition to pitched battles around Parliament Building there are also struggles raging around the Stock Exchange and the- High Court of Justice, which are situated in the centre of Pest. The radio added that only a small part of Budapest remained in German hands. The Moscow radio declared: "Final annihilation of the German forces in the Budapest cauldron is a matter of days. The Germans in the battles for Budapest have lost more than 10,000 killed, 30,000 wounded and 1429 captured."

Hunger is gripping Budapest and famished and exhausted men, women and children are crawling from their hiding places as the Red Army drives deeper into the city. The Germans are said to have seized or destroyed the food stocks.

The Red Star reports that the fighting west of Budapest is marked by extreme ferocity. A large group of German tanks succeeded in wedging into the Russian defences. The Red Army was ordered to retreat to new positions where the Germans were halted. The enemy in another sector also pressed back the Russians and succeeded in capturing a number of places. The Moscow radio also announced that tho Red Army was soon launching its greatest offensive of the war. The radio said: "A new Russian winter capvpaign on a larger scale than any previous ones is imminent. It will exceed all earlier drives in power and impetus."