SOVIET BREACH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25802, 24 March 1945, Page 7

SOVIET BREACH

LINE COVERING AUSTRIA KONIEV’S NEW THRUST OPPELN AND NEUSTADT TAKEN (Rec. 1 a.m.) LONDON, Mar. 23. Red Army troops massed under the command of Marshal Koniev are to-day mounting the first big threat to Hitler’s citadel—the socalled “ Keep ” —bounded in the north by the Czechoslovakian mountain range, says the British United Press. Koniev’s breakthrough west and south of Oppeln covers the flank of any force attacking in the direction of the Moravia Gap leading between the White Carpathians and the Moravian heights to Vienna.

Further west, under a mile and a-half*from the Czech frontier, the Russians are threatening one of the main trunk railways to Prague at a point 10 miles west of Neustadt, also within striking distance of the Eres-lau-Prague highway. Moscow remains silent on German reports of Marshal Tolbukhin’s breakthrough north-west of Budapest. According to a German military spokesman, 16 Red Army divisions yesterday further stepped up powerful attacks on both sides of Danzig Bay. The Russians stormed forward in wave after wave against Gdynia and Zoppol, but did not succeed in breaking through to the coast

Reuter’s correspondent points out that at least 60 per cent, of Germany’s war production is now concentrated in areas in Austria and Czechoslovakia, which the Russian offensives in Hungary and Upper Silesia are now directly threatening.

Marshal Koniev’s drive cleans up a corner in Upper Silesia where mines and industries are situated. It also cortsolidates his left flank, which is now based on the Sudeten mountains (Neustadt lies in the foothills), • and strengthens his position as regards the Moravian gap into Czechoslovakia, states Reuter’s military correspondent. His thrust has given him a number of places along the railway which from Katowice cuts across the southern tip of Upper Silesia. A Berlin radio war reporter says the Russian forces in the full-scale assault on Stettin were “ extraordinary even considering the scale of previous deployments of the Red Army strength on the east front.”

A Pravda despatch from advanced positions overlooking Danzig said enemy forces are sheltering in the woods around Danzig. Murderous Russian fire was smashing sporadic counter-attacks.

Another Pravda correspondent, in a despatch from “ the Berlin highway,” said he could see in the cloudless sky British bombers banking for a bomb run on Berlin.

The Times Moscow correspondent says that by dawn on the morning of March 22 the Germans had been driven

to within four miles of Frisches Haff. Everywhere along the 12 to 15 miles’ strip of East Prussian soil, Soviet planes all day yesterday were over this tiny patch. They bombed and strafed Heilingenbeil and the wharves on Friesches Haff. Soviet tanks and infantry advancing in small detachments across the flooded country met violent resistance at some points. One German garrison, rejecting demands for capitulation, fought until there was not a man alive or uninjured. Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says observers point to intensive movement of Red Army troops, tanks, and guns to the Oder front, coupled with artillery duels and bitter air fighting, as indicating that Marshal Zhukov will strike soon.

More than 50 miles further east the resistance of the Germans trapped south-west of Koenigsberg has reached cracking point. A crack tank division which has been trying to force a way from the East Prussia pocket has lost most of its tanks and guns. The Hermann Goering Division shared the same fate. The slaughter has been tremendous. Special Russian squads were detailed to clear streets choked with German dead before the Soviet tanks and guns could. advance. Big Russian gains in Upper Silesia, including the capture of the road and rail centre and industrial town of Oppeln are announced in the following order of the day by Marshal Stalin: “ The troops on the first Ukrainian front, having broken into the. enemy’s defences west and south of Oppeln, advanced 25 miles in each direction and ousted the Germany Army grouping in the area south-west of Oppeln. As the result of this fighting, the troops of this front captured up to 15,000 Germans, 464 guns, and a great quantity of other weapons and war, material. “In the course of the offensive the troops captured in Silesia the towns of Neustadt, Cosel, Steinau, Zuelz, Krapitz-Ober-Glogau, and Falkenberg, as well as 400 other inhabited localities.”