RELIEF ATTEMPTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25735, 5 January 1945, Page 3

RELIEF ATTEMPTS

BUDAPEST GARRISON GERMANS ATTACK FROM WEST SOME GROUND GAINED (Rec. 0.30 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 4.‘ The Germans south-east of Komamo are to-day hurling still more panzers into attempts to breaJ* through from the west to their encircled comrades in Budapest* says Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. Massed Russian artil- , lery is taking a heavy toll of the German armour. Front-line despatches indicate that, while the Russians have been forced to give ground south-east of Komamo, tney are holding firmly against the violent attempts of the Budapest garrison to break out. Hunger is gripping Budapest, and famished and exnausted men, women, and children are crawling from hiding places as the Red Army drives deeper into the city. The Germans said they had seized or destroyed food stocks. Red Star reports that the fighting west of Budapest is marked by extreme ferocity. A large group of German tanks succeeded in wedging into the Russian defences. The Rea Army was ordered to retreat to new positions, where the Germans were nalted.. The enemy in another sector also pressed back the Russians and succeeded in capturing a number of DIcICCS One of the greatest air battles was fought over the eastern front yesterday over Budapest, says the Associated Press Moscow correspondent. Soviet fighters, bombers, and Stormoviks flew hundreds of sorties against the Luftwaffe, which resisted strongly. Losses were heavy on both sides. The British United Press correspondent reports that the Russians have reached the banks of the Danube at several points inside Budapest after the Germans blew up the great railway bridge, one of the finest in Europe, between Pest and Buda. One _ claw of the multi-armed Russian pincers struck upstream along the Buda embankment from this bridge and slashed deeply into the zone between the Danube and Citadel Hill. The Russians in Pest are driving the Germans towards the Houses of Parliament and the Stock Exchange, and in another Pest district they have surrounded and passed Budapest UniverS 1 In this drive the Russians are ruthlessly exterminating German machinegun crews at thb bayonet point. The Germans have converted the encircled university into a fortress which the Red Army heavy guns are battering to pieces. The Germans are fanatically obeying the order to die at their posts rather than surrender. Now that the Russians have penetrated right inside the city the Germans have adopted a new plan for holding buildings at strategic corners, whence they pour a hail of fire down converging streets. > The Russians dug up many German mines in newly-occupied areas and rushed them to the forward front line, where sappers are using Them to blow up German-occupied buildings. There are incredible scenes of chaos in the debris-choked streets of Budapest The Germans are setting fire to more buildings, and trying to throw up a barrier of flame between themselves and the Russians,