BATTERED BELGRADE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25047, 10 November 1944, Page 5

BATTERED BELGRADE

SUFFERING OF PEOPLE BUILDINGS EMPTY SHELLS (Reed. 0.3(1 p.m.) T/ONDON, Nov. 9 Tlip first British journalist to reach Belgrade after its liberation was a Renter's correspondent. He says that shrunken frames and lined faces show the horrors and hardships that the people suffered for the three years of the occupation. Everywhere there are signs of heavy bombing, first by the Germans in li) 41 and, later, by the Allies. Most of the big buildings are mere empty shells and the great marshalling yards and railway stations are wildernesses. All the river bridges, except one. have been smashed and the quays are lined with sunken ships and barges. There is hardly a house in the centre of the city which does not bear the marks of recent street fighting. Some of the streets are still full of derelict tanks and burned-out cars. More than 20.000 German dead have been taken from the city. A few Germans and several dangerous quislings are still hiding in the rnirts. The Germans in the south of Yugoslavia are making strenuous efforts to extricate themselves along the valleys which run through the mountainous country dominated by the \ugoslav guerillas. Thev are also strengthening the defences of Skoplje and Kumanovo, in Southern Serbia, toward which the Yugoslavs are marching, according to today's Yugoslav communique. In the western Morava \ alley further north the Germans have succeeded in breaking through. They have also succeeded in effecting a breach toward Visegrad, on the eastern fringe of Bosnia, and they have advanced toward fuzla and captured the railway from Brod to Doboj. FRENCH TRAITORS DEATH SENTENCES PASSED (Reed, f1.,10 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. f) A military tribunal at Moreuil sentenced to death a Frenchwoman named Leclere for having delivered French patriots to the Germans. A Court at Limoges sentenced to death two brothers, Laurent and Francois Barbasoche, on a similar charge. All were executed on Tuesday. Frenchmen found guilty by a Paris Assize Court of collaborating with Germans were sentenced to death. Another who joined the anti-Bolshevik Legion was sentenced to five years' solitary confinement. Georges Saurez, the French proNazi editor, who was convicted of approving the murder of hostages, was shot today by a French firing squad after General de Gaulle had rejected his appeal. The case against Saurez was based mainly on articles written by him in bis newspaper.