“NOTHING CAN SAVE BUDAPEST”

Southland Times, Issue 25513, 6 November 1944, Page 5

“NOTHING CAN SAVE BUDAPEST”

RUSSIANS AT GATES OF CITY COSSACKS HARRY FLEEING ENEMY FORCES (United Press Association— Telegraph Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, November 5. Nothing can save Budapest now, said Moscow radio. The Russians are overcoming the enemy s resistance in the battle for the capital. Red Army mobile infantry supported by artillery is gaining ground yard by yard. Moscow radio later reported that Russian tanks with air support were breaking into the outskirts of Budapest. Russian tanks entered the southern outskirts of the city, said the Hungarian radio, but were later repulsed. Russian tanks have swept round Budapest to the north and cut German escape routes at the railway junction of Ujpest, two miles from the capital. The hour of decision seems near, says Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. - Scores of low-flying Russian planes, ranging over the battle zone up to the walls of Budapest, are bombing and gunning the disorganized Germans and Hungarians. Cossacks have overtaken and sheared through the fleeing enemy units with sabres. Newly arrived German reserves are being smashed and captured so rapidly that they are just stepping straight from Germany into Russian prison

camps. Street demonstrators in Budapest are demanding an open city declaration and also the removal of aU troops and war equipment from the capital in order to save it. The Exchange Telegraph’s Zurich correspondent states it is reported by telephone from Budapest that all the municipal authorities have been dissolved. There is an atmosphere of panic and the police are unable to maintain order. Refugees, fleeing from the city in an increasing stream, are unable to find shelter in the overcrowded villages, as the troops guarding the Austrian frontier are forcibly preventing the entry of refugees.