RENEWED DRIVE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25049, 13 November 1944, Page 5

RENEWED DRIVE

GOAL .OF BUDAPEST RUSSIANS ADVANCE BATTLE FOB HIGHROADS VITAL RAILWAY CUT (Reed. 8.30 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 12 The Red Army has renewed its attacks against the Hungarian capital, Budapest. It is sweeping forward across open country in an outflanking move against the city on a 90-mile front. The Red Army, using its full force, apparently aims at forcing the Germans back on the Danube and opening the way for a pincer movement from the north and south. Renter's correspondent in Moscow states that the Red Army is exploiting the newly-won bridgeheads over the Tisa and is now streaming across the river to join the powerful Russian spearhead which is thrusting against Budapest from the north-east. Battle for Two Roads The correspondent in a later message says that the struggle on the north-east and south-east approaches to Budapest has become a battle for two highroads, 35 miles apart, on the Hungarian Plain, says Reuter's Moscow correspondent. The Russians hope by smashing the German groupings defending the highways to reach the gateway to Budapest from a new direction. As the Russian advance continues it will trap considerable German forces. There are few usable roads if the highways are cut. One highway connects Miskolcz and Budapest. Russian tanks are now rolling along this road to the south-west after cutting the railway between Miskolcz and Budapest. The other highway runs to Budapest from Czegled. The German news agency says that the German front north-west of Szolnok has been taken back several miles. It adds that the Russians yesterday morning launched a major offensive between the Danube and Tisa Rivers, south-east of Budapest. Infantry and Guns

The Associated Press correspondent in Moscow says that the Russians, after shattering the German defences on the west bank of the Upper Tisa River, have driven a wedge of infantry and guns into the enemy's last direct line of railway communications between Budapest and North-eastern Hungary. A big Russian salient extends to the west beyond Mezo Keresztes and curves toward the rear of the German panzer forces which have been counterattacking south-east and east of Budapest in an attempt to ward off the Russian drive to outflank the city. A contmunique from Marshal Tito's headquarters says that Yugoslav troops and units of the Red Army have crossed the Danube at Apatin, Moha and Baja (all due south of. Budapest) and are continuing to advance toward Budapest. ARTILLERY BARRAGE EAST PRUSSIA SECTOR " GERMAN DEFENCES POUNDEO LONDON, Nov. 11 The British United Press correspondent in Moscow says General Chernyakov's guns are pounding the German defences, which must be broken before the next thrust forward in East Prus- ] sia. The massed artillery barrage, which, began at midnight on Monday after Marshal Stalin, in his anniversary day speech, gave the Red Army's objective as Berlin, has been going on ever since. The correspondent expresses the opinion that the Red Army revived its assault against 30 trapped German divisions in Latvia because the elimination of the pocket would mean that the armies of Generals Bajjramyan and Maslennikov could be switched south to back up General Chernyakov's assault against East Prussia. GAINS BY BULGARIANS SOUTHERN YUGOSLAVIA (Kecd. 8.30 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 12 A Moscow communique says that the Bulgarians operating against the Germans on Yugoslav territory have occupied Stip and Veles, in Southern Serbia. Veles is on the railway from Skoplje to Salonika. A Bulgarian communique says that Bulgarian troops have captured the important railway town of Kumanova, between Skoplje and Nisli. after two weeks' hard fighting. Kumanova is one of the places,the Germans had fortified to help defend the Macedonian capital and to keep open their main escape route from Greece. DEEP DEFENCES BUILT GERMANS CONSCRIPT POLES LONDON. Nov. 11 The Germans in the past three months have impressed into the army's fortification service, over 2,000,000 Poles of all ages, mostly women and children, reports a correspondent of the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, after a German-conducted tour of German defence works in Southern Poland.

The Stockholm correspondent of the Times says that Poles ara toiling with picks and spades constructing defence lines> consisting of trenches, tank ditches, mine traps and barbed wire barricades "to an incredible depth" behind the front, covering Cracow. Each Pole has a minimum quota of labour. Boys aged 12 must remove two cubic metres of earth every day, their mothers and grandmothers must remove three and a-half cubic metres, and men four and a-half cubic metres. COLONEL JOINS RUSSIANS (Reed. 6.10 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 12 Moscow reports that the Chief of Staff of the Hungarian Seventh Army, Colonel Hart?:, has joined the Red Army. FLYING BOMB ATTACKS (Reed. 8.30 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 12 Many of the flying bombs launched against Southern England on Friday night were destroyed by anti-aircraft gunners and Royal Air Force fighters. Two wore destroyed by one pilot. No flying bombs were reported over England last night.