GRIP ON BERLIN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 28 April 1945, Page 2

GRIP ON BERLIN

CAPTURE OF^SPANDAU WISDOM OF RUSSIAN POLICY SHOWN (Rec. 1.30 pj.m.) London, April 27. The firmness of the Russians’ grip on Berlin area is shown by Marshal Stalin’s latest order of the day announcing the capture of Spandau, nine miles north-west of Potsdamer Platz, Potsdam, 15 miles south-west of Potsdamer Platz, and Rathenow, on the east bank of the Havel River, 45 miles west of Berlin’s centre. These captures are described as important road junctions, and powerful bases of German defences in central Germany. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says the Red Army’s wisdom in adopting a stab to the heart policy in Berlin, aiming straight for the centre of the capital and leaving pockets in the rear to be cleaned up later, has brought great results. It has sw'iftly led to a position where one more Russian breakthrough in force to the Unter den Linden will mean a virtual collapse of the German defence. Already the only remaining German troops which show any semblance of a battle line are those fighting with their backs to the Tiergarten. west of the Unter den Linden. Elsewhere the front and rear have become hopelessly intermingled. A British United Press correspondent, quoting the latest frontline reports, states that -the Red Army is fighting in practically every part of Berlin except a small circle drawn around the Unter den Linden. The Russians, however, only partly hold many districts because of a trick which it was feared the Germans would use when the situation became really desperate—the use of hostages. The Germans are keeping groups of as many as 200 Ukranian White Russian slave workers on the upper floors of buildings so that Russian sappers won’t blow them up. The Germans took M. Blum and M. Daladier with them when they left Buchenwald, reports the British United Press corresopndent with the Third Arrny. #