NEWS FROM WARSAW

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 17 August 1944, Page 3

NEWS FROM WARSAW

ACTIVITIES OF POLISH TROOPS SHORT OF AMMUNITION AND ARMS Wellington, This Day. The Polish Government in London received the following radio report on Saturday: "On 4th August, the fourth day of the Battle for Warsaw, the enemy put bombers into action against our detachments. Many fires have been started in the city area. The battle continues all over the city. The main north-to-south thoroughfare, Marshalkowska street, is in our hands. Grim, fighting rages for the possession of the bridges over the Vistula and for the railway station, which has changed hands several times and is now again in the hands of the Germans. We are firmly holding the Wilno and Easternline stations (both in the suburbs of Prnga on the cast bank of the Vistula). The Germans arc sparing no effort in order to keep their columns moving along the east-to-west thoroughfare “Aleje Jerozolimskie” (the broad avenue leading from the Vistula bridge through tlie city southwards). In the central part of this avenue the Germans have set all houses on fire, aiming by this barbarous method to expel outdetachments and snipers from this area. The inhabitants of these houses have been deported to an unknown de stination. * Most of the enemy’s heavy tanks are in action in this sector. Our main anti-tank weapons are “Molotov Cocktails,’ ’produced in large quantities by the population. In other parts of the city the enemy is rallying his forces at several points of resistance. Our situation is difficult because of a grow ing shortage of ammunition, and the German terror against the civilian population is in full swing. On 2nd August. 50 men were seized on j Powonzkowska street, bound to tanks and dragged along the street. On 3rd August, Germans attacking the barricade on the Poniatowski Viaduct seized scores of civilians and forced them to act as a screen for their tanks attacking the barricade. The Germans are continually committing such appalling atrocities.’' “The morale of the population is excellent. Crowds of volunteers are joining the Underground Units, but we are in dire need of arms and ammunition,” reports the Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Underground Army on 4th August.