DRIVE SPEEDED UP

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 13 April 1945, Page 5

DRIVE SPEEDED UP

RUSSIANS IN VIENNA FINAL BLOW EXPECTED SOON TANKS ON WAY TO LINZ AND MUNICH? London. April 12. Russian stormtroops to-day speeded up their drive through Vienna to clear the last streets still in German hands. It is expected the Russians will make a landing on the Danube bank of the flank of the German-held areas as a final blow to crush resistance. Moscow is maintaining official silence on the German statement that Marshal Tolbukhin’s tanks are driving west- of Vienna towards Linz and Munich, but the Associated Press of Great Britain correspondent in Moscow says there is every reason for considering the report to be true. It is known that Marshal Tolbukhin’s forces drove rapidly Ihrough a big hole punched in German defences. The security silence has been imposed because the Germans are unaware of the positions of some of his units. KONIGSBERG’S SURRENDER To-day German High Command communique, reporting the surrender of Konigsberg, says a court-martial sentenced General Lasch, in absentia, to death by hanging, for cowardly sur-1 render. It added: “His family will be held responsible.”