MORE SOVIET GAINS

Southland Times, Issue 25537, 4 December 1944, Page 5

MORE SOVIET GAINS

OUTFLANKING OF, BUDAPEST

RUSSIANS TAKE FIVE TOWNS STRIKING PROGRESS MADE (Rec, 11 p.m.) LONDON, December 3. An admission that the fighting in southern Hungary had reached a line from Kaposvar to Pecs, about 90 miles southwest of Budapest, has received generous confirmation in an Order-of-the-Day by M. Stalin addressed to Marshal Fyodor Tolbukhin and Lieutenant-Gen-eral Ivanov. Kaposvar, the big road and rail junction 30 miles north-west of Pecs and the same distance south of Lake Balaton, has, in fact, fallen to the Russians advancing swiftly north. Striking progress has also been made in the Danube area below Budapest. The order says: “Forces of the 3rd Ukrainian Front have in two days occupied five Hungarian towns. These are Kaposvar, Paks, Szekszard, Bonyhad and Dombovar.” The five towns stand in a wide arc below Budapest facing Lake Balaton. Paks is a rail station on the Danube, 60 miles south of the capital. Szekszard is 22 miles southwest and five miles west of the Danube. Bonyhad is 11 miles southwest again with Dombovar 20 miles west. This is an important station on the Budapest-Zagreb railway. Nearly 20 miles west again is Kaposvar. Budapest is thus being deeply outflanked from the south. Soviet forces in Czechoslovakia yesterday fought for the extention of the bridgehead over the Ondava River and occupied a number of places.

ENCIRCLING MOVEMENT The German News Agency’s military commentator, von Olberg, commenting on M. Stalin’s Order of the Day, said: “The Russians’ attempt at a huge encircling movement in western Hungary with Budapest as its ultimate object is assuming clear shape. The Russians’ pressure on Slovakia from the north

and east is connected with this movement. Very strong Russian reinforcements are arriving at the confluence of the Drava and Danube rivers which is the focal point of the entire operation. Marshal Tolbukhin is apparently to build up the battering ram west of the Danube before the offensive against Budapest is resumed. BLACK SEA OPEN The German Black Sea has been opened to navigation, states the Moscow correspondent of The Exchange Telegraph Agency. Mines were cleared from Russian ports and the first three shiploads were landed at Odessa. Novo-' rossisk, Nikolayec, Kherson and other ports are preparing for the reception of ships.