SOVIET CROSSING OF DANUBE

Southland Times, Issue 25483, 2 October 1944, Page 5

SOVIET CROSSING OF DANUBE

JUNCTION WITH YUGOSLAV UNITS (United Press Association—Telegraph Copyright) (Rec. 11.15 p.m.) LONDON, October 1. A crossing of the Danube into Yugoslavia has been made by Russian troops near the Iron Gate. The Russians have occupied . 20 places, including Negotin and Kladovo. Marshal Tito’s forces were in possession of Negotin when the Russians arrived and they have linked up with the Soviet forces. The Russians made a swift crossing of the Danube and overcame German resistance. The Red Army is grimly battering down the German defences north-east of Riga in some of the heaviest fighting ever seen on the Soviet-German front. Large German forces concentrated in the Riga zone are enveloped by Soviet troops on three sides, with one narrow corridor open in the west. Through this, the enemy is continuously drawing up reserves, as Riga is vital to the defence of East Prussia.

The Germans in the Riga zone are savagely defending every mile and ambushing and mining the forest roads. Hundreds of German snipers, perched in trees, allow Soviet troops to go past then shoot them in the backs. Picked Soviet troops with mortars and light guns are infiltrating deep into the enemy’s defences and wiping out ambushes and strongpoints.

German artillery and Tommy guns, desperately defending the marshy terrain near the terminus of the PskovRiga highway, are being mercilessly strafed by Stormoviks and pounded by mobile guns.

The Russians north-west of Parnu have crossed the strait and have occupied the island of Moon. The Red Army south and south-east of Turk has occupied several localities. In difficult, mountainous and wooded country, west and south-west of Vampulung, the Russians have occupied more than 30 inhabited places. The Russians have scored an important success in the eastern Carpathians, approaching within 40 miles of Cluj after breaking the upper Mures River line, says the Moscow correspondent .of the Associated Press ■of America. The Red Army has assisted the Czechs and has already cracked a 90-miles stretch of frontier fortifications defending the Ruthenian hills, and in advances through northern Transylvania has driven wedges into every important Ruthenian pass, extending the grip on the Czechoslovak frontier to 145 miles. Despite the supply difficulties in the mountains the Russians appear to be increasing the force of their blows and are developing what may be an encircling threat to the remaining Gerriian units in northern Translyvania. The Moscow correspondent of Reuters say:? that the Red Army on some sectors of the Czechoslovak front is fighting battles on dizzy mountain heights, where sudden thunderstorms transform paths into torrents sending huge boulders crashing across the roads.

Soviet guns continue their smashing bombardment across the Vistula against the German fortifications in Warsaw. The Germans are keeping up a fierce machine gun fire across the river from tall buildings in the city. At the same time they are making a systematic attempt to raze the suburb of Praga by shellfire. FIGHTING IN FINLAND German Formation Routed (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, September 30. Pitched battles between the Finns and Germans have occurred in the Kininge area north of Oslo, says a report from Helsinki. A battalion routed a German formation and German dead and wounded were left on the field.

GENERAL BOR’S NEWPOST COMMAND OF POLISH FORCES

(8.0.W.) RUGBY, September 30. The Polish President, Dr Wladyslaw Raczkiewicz, has decided to relieve General Kazimierz Sosnkowski, Com-mander-in-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces, of his post following a demand put forward by the Cabinet. General Bor, Commander of the Polish Forces at Warsaw, will take his place. This change brings to an end the crisis in Polish governing circles in London, which came to a head when General Sosnkowski made his ill-ad-visec) Order of the Day disaparaging the assistance brought by the Allies to the defenders of Warsaw. The new Polish Military Chief in London, Gen-' eral Kupanski, is remembered as the commander of the Polish troops who shared with the British the epic defence of Tobruk during the eight months’ siege in 1941.

APPOINTMENT IS CRITICIZED ALLEGATIONS AGAINST GENERAL BOR S

(Rec. 7.30 p.rq.) LONDON, October 1. “General Bor is a criminal against the Polish people because he is the instigator of the premature rising in Warsaw which cost the lives of more than 250,000 people,” said M. Moravski, president of the Polish Committee of National Liberation, at a Press-conference at the Polish Eiribassy in Moscow. He added: “If the Polish Government in London has appointed him to succeed General Sosnkowski as Command-er-in-Chief, it must be crazy. Feeling in Warsaw is greater against General Bor than against General Sosnkowski. General Bor, if he falls into the hands of the Polish Army or National Committee, will be arrested, tried and punished.” TJie National Committee’s defence member, General Rolazymierski, told the conference that General Bor had never been in Warsaw during the fighting but stayed at a secret spot 20 miles from the capital.

M. Moravski later said that relations between the National Committee in Warsaw and the Polish Government in London had become worse. “Some members of the London emigre Government who may have caused the Warsaw uprising will be punished if found guilty.” ,