BUDAPEST NOW IN FLAMES

Southland Times, Issue 25545, 13 December 1944, Page 5

BUDAPEST NOW IN FLAMES

The Germans are now pulling out of blazing Budapest, which is experiencing the last grim hours of final assault. The Moscow correspondent of the British United Press says that the German retreat is reported to be so hasty that they are leaving their equipment and wounded behind. Russian planes are taking a heavy toll of the columns retreating along the Vienna road. Marshal Malinovsky’s units are under seven miles from the capital in their advance from the north and are moving down the west bank of the Danube. Red Army units south of Budapest on the east bank of the Danube and other Russian forces on Scepel Island are only six miles away. MASS SURRENDER German and Hungarian units, trapped by the Russians around Budapest, are surrendering en masse; Marshal Malinovsky’s men are gathering in more than 1000 a day. Marshal Fyodor Tolbukhin’s Cossacks are mopping up isolated enemy forces between the Danube and Lake Balaton.

The German rearguards before Budapest are fighting frantically to delay the Russian entry into the capital. Hordes of low-flying Stormoviks are taking a terrible toll of the German columns as they pull out across the rolling roads north-west of Buda.

The Berlin radio said today: “The German artillerymen defending Budapest are working so close to the Russian troops that they are equipped with

hand grenades and often fight as infantrymen. No complicated target indicators are needed for these guns. They fire directly into the Russian troops and tanks.” HELP FROM PATRIOTS A correspondent of the British United Press says travellers who left Budapest last Friday state that Hungarian pattriots who were released by the Russians in the neighbourhood of Budapest and workers who are fighting shoulder to shoulder with the Red Army are helping to throw the German rearguards from the capital. Travellers declared that bitter street fighting is going on, that “conditions in Budapest are unbearable and the destruction throughout the city is terrible.” CIVILIANS TRAPPED The National Broadcasting Company’s commentator in Moscow says: “Beautiful Budapest is going the way of Warsaw. Black smoke, pierced by tongues of flame, is hanging low and thick over Budapest. The never-ending roar of battle is bringing sleepless nights to the civilians trapped in their city.” The Moscow correspondent of Reuter’s reports that last-minute efforts are being made to reform crowds of battleshocked, weaponless German and Hungarian infantry which are being flung back to the city. The correspondent is of the opinion that the battle for Budapest will last only as long as the Germans are able to hold open the road to Vienna behind them.