SOVIET PENETRATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25673, 23 October 1944, Page 5

SOVIET PENETRATION

FURIOUS BATTLES RAGING CEASELESS RUSSIAN BARRAGE (Rec. 10.30 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 21. The Russians have penetrated 11 to 13 miles inside East Prussia on a 50-mile front, says the German News Agency. The fighting in East Prussia has reached a whitehot intensity, states the Berlin military spokesman. Swaying battles are spreading every hour. The enemy is pouring a ceaseless, drum-like artillery barrage against the German positions. The German radio reports that Jiowerful Russian forces are massng for a new offensive* against Cracow. Although Moscow remains silent about the operations against East Prussia, the Red Army, after weeks of regrouping and preparation, has at last really bitten into East Prussia, says the Moscow correspondent of the British United Press. A terrific battle is raging on East Prussian soil. The Red Army has pushed 15 miles beyond the border to within 30 miles of the great rail centre of Insterburg, which the Russians have been consistently bombing during the past few weeks. A German High Command statement said: “The Russians to-day succeeded in achieving several breaches on the East Prussian front between Shirtwindt and Suvtalki. Our troops, retreating to a new position, managed to halt the enemy’s advance.” Reuter’s Moscow correspondent reports that a division of Germany’s new home guard is in action in the East Prussian sector. The Red Army avalanche attacking East Prussia has already poured across the German frontier over a width of at least 15 miles, says the Moscow cor-

respondent of the British United Press. The Russians, according to conservative estimates in Moscow, hold 40 square miles of German territory beyond Eydtkau. including several dozen villages. The German News Agency stated that the Russians made a new breach on the East Prussian frontier at Rominternerheath, 20 miles south-west of Eydtkau. The News Agency also reported that the Russians had resumed the offensive north-east of Warsaw at Serock Rozan.

The Red Army, in its amazing offensive in Czechoslovakia, is keeping up with the retreating Germans over the bad mountain roads and across the many rivers in the valleys of Ruthenia, says the Associated Press Moscow correspondent. The Germans are on the run towards the Bohemian Plateau, abandoning arms and munitions in their hurried flight. The Red Army appears to have smashed completely the huge panzer group which the Germans threw into the breach south of Debreczen. Enemy tank losses in this sector since October 6 totalled 1528.

Russians north of Szeged crossed the Tisa River at night-time and fought for an extension of the bridgehead on the western bank, states a Soviet supplementary communique. The Red Army west of Szeged pushed on 16 miles and captured Baja, on the eastern bank of the Danube.

In the course of the fighting for Debreczen, which was captured on Friday, the German 23rd Tank Division and 46th Infantry Division were routed. The Russian forces destroyed 133 tanks.

The Russian supplementary communique states that over 2000 Germans and Hungarians were killed fighting for Debreczen. Twenty-five German planes were destroyed on the town’s aerodrome.

A Finnish communique reports that Sodankyla has been captured after heavy fighting.