FURIOUS BATTLING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25797, 19 March 1945, Page 5

FURIOUS BATTLING

THE RUSSIAN SCENE FRANTIC ENEMY TACTICS TANKS FOUGHT TO STANDSTILL (Rec. 10.30 p.m.) LONDON, Mar. 17. While the great battle around Stettin rages with unabated fury, Marshal Zhukov’s immediate objectives are becoming discernible, report Moscow correspondents. The latest drive is designed to wipe out the German pocket east of the Lower Oder in an attempt to seize the remaining bridges across the river. Altdamm, a stronglyfortified town on the southern bank of the Oder, four miles from Stettin, was virtually outflanked by the capture of Bruenken, three miles south of Stettin. The Russians’ drive has also cut the railway and road between Altdamm and Stettin. German commentators admit that the Russians have broken into the inner defences to some depth. They report a heavy tank battle between Oder and Buchheida Forest, south of Stettin. Moscow correspondents say ’ that Marshal Rokossovsky is encountering strong opposition along the outer perimeter of the Danzig-Gdynia fortified zone, where the Germans are established behind formidable anti-tank ditches, trenches, and staggered pillboxes. Russian tanks and infantry stormed and captured Zuekau, an important centre on the main DanzigZoppal road, and another column captured Espenkrug, four miles from the Baltic coast north of Zoppal. These gains indicate that Marshal Rokossovsky is near splitting the GdyniaDanzig grouping. Red Star reports that the area of German-held Konigsberg is only a few miles in length and breadth. Fresh fires have broken out inside the city, which lies under a heavy pall of smoke. A Berlin commentator, describing the bitter fighting at Kolberg, claimed that/ 60,000 women and children had been evacuated by sea under fire of Russian artillery. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says that the great fight on the plains of South-west Hungary is slow'ly swinging in Marshal Tolbukhin’s favour. Hitler’s massed panzers have been beaten to a standstill after 12 days of violent counter-attacks. There is at present stalemate on the battlefield north-east of Lake Balaton, where the Germans in the last few days have lost tanks. The Red Army has killed more than 20,000 Germans and destroyed more than 600 tanks in the 13-day battle in the neighbourhood of Lake Balaton, said the Moscow radio in a front-line report. The Russians now threaten the southern areas of Germany with the added danger, from the German viewpoint, of a link-up between the Red Army and the Allied forces in Italy. The German High Command mounted its Balaton stroke gradually and secretly. Moving troops by night, they intended by means of blitzkreig tactics to split the Russian forces and paralyse our striking power by reaching the Danube.

The Germans had excellent reasons for attaching importance to this operation which led them to disregard the position on other fronts. They are still receiving hundreds of thousands of tons of steel and oil from Western Hungary from where their main communication lines lead to Austria and South Germany, where the principal steelworks and arms and motor factories are situated. Moreover, dozens of Germany’s main industrial plants have been moved to these areas, which are considered safe from air raids. Austria, it is believed, houses the Heinkel and Messerschmitt factories and part of the Krupp organisation. The Germans failed to achieve surprise. One Russian formation, at the peak, of the battle, withstood 34 attacks in three days, but the ferocity of the onslaught has now considerably abated. The Moscow communique says the Russians south-west _of Koenigsberg have continued the liquidation of the East Prussian German grouping and captured a number of inhabited places, including Brandenburg. They took 700 prisoners. The Russians in the Stettin area have continued the liquidation also of the German bridgehead on the east bank of the Oder and captured a number of places.

The German News Agency says

that Kolberg, where the German garrison is making a . suicide stand,

Is blazing from end to end, and front-line correspondents report that the garrison has rejected two

surrender demands with the retort “ Kolberg will figfiit to the last cartridge.” The Red Army brought up new reinforcements and compressed the grimly resisting handful of German defenders into the harbour area, where fierce house-to-house fighting is raging. Russian artillery is systematically pulverising what remains of the town in German hands. The German News Agency says the Russians north-east of Szekesfehervar, after a violent drumfire barrage, yesterday launched an offensive on a wide front. One wedge of the attack was directed against Szekesfehervarj and broke down in the lace of a German artillery barrage. Russian penetration farther norlti was sealed off. The Russians advancing along the east bank of the Oder captured Frauenhoff, five miles from Stettin, states the Moscow supplementary communique. Three thousand Germans yesterday were killed in the Stettin sector. The Russians at Breslau, surmounting barricades, forced the Lohe River and after hand-to-hand fighting captured a large motor repair works. We have shot down 10 enemy transport planes in the last tw T o days while attempting to supply the garrison at Breslau. The Red Air Force yesterday attacked military targets in Breslau and rail the junction of Ostrava. Fires and explosions were caused in both places. The Germans used 10 panzer and 6 infantry divisions in the series of attacks in the Lake Balaton area, says the Moscow radio. The Germans in some sectors flung in between 200 and 300 tanks at one time, but are now able to attack only on narrow sectors with small forces.