REIGN OF TERROR

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVI, Issue 23078, 18 December 1944, Page 5

REIGN OF TERROR

GERMAN S.S. IN BUDAPEST Premier Seriously Wounded By Telegraph—N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright LONDON, December 15. These is a reign of terror in Budapest, according to Hungarian war prisoners quoted by the Moscow newspaper, “Izvestia.” TLey state that the city is entirely in the hands of the German S.S., who are carrying out endless pogroms. The roads beyond Budapest are jammed with ox-carts carrying thousands of bewildered refugees. The Hungarian army is falling to pieces, and units are surrendering whenever they can. Tire Germans distrust their allies, and they have never let Hungarians hold any sector alone. German machine-gunners guard every lane through the minefields. The Hungarian Premier, Szalasi, was seriously wounded in a recent attempt at his assassination, according to the Paris radio. The radio added that a number of persons were killed in the attempt, which occurred while Szalasi was making a speech in Budapest. Correspondents in Moscow state that Marshal Malinovsky is carrying out wide flanking movements around the German forces bottled up in the mountain defiles north of Miskolcz. Stonnoviks are roaring over the peaks carrying the battle deep into Slovak territory and strafing enemy supply lorries. The Russian advance is beginning to threaten Kosice, a key point in the German communications running through Slovakia to south Poland. The Moscow correspondent of the Associated Press states that the Russians’ newest operation in Slovakia seems to have two objectives, the splitting of the German garrisons in central and eastern Slovakia and to wheel west along the shortest invasion route to Austria. Czechoslovak Frontier To-night’s Moscow communique does not refer to tire fighting round Budapest, but gains are reported to the north and in Czechoslovakia. The Russians have taken a place 35 miles north of Budapest and have crossed the Czechoslovak frontier. The communique states: "The Russians in Hungary north-east and north of Miskolcz fought their way into more than 30 places, including the railway station of Szendro, 20 miles north of Miskolcz. The Red Army north of Budapest, in Czechoslovak territory, captured Sahy. The Russians yesterday took 1015 Germans and Hungarians prisoner.”

“While troops of the Second Ukrainian Army battle for Budapest, threequarters of which is now surrounded bv the Red Army, powerful forces from Marshal Malinovsky’s army are moving through the mountains 95 miles northeast of the Hungarian capital in a new drive to force the remaining enemy units in this sector into guerrilla-ridden Czechoslovakia. The main battle here is going on along the Ipolv River, 85 miles east of Bratislava. German and Hungarian troops in this area will be under a new threat from the east when General Petrov’s Fourth Ukrainian Army renews its advance toward the interior of Czechoslovakia. A Russian communique reports that the Red Armv north-east of Miskolcz has occupied Sarosoatak and more than 30 other places, including the railwav station at Abau>szar>t.o. The Russians on this sector yesterday took prisoner 810 Germans and Hungarians. Two-way Thrust The Red Army; making a two-way thrust, is menacing the approaches to the Bratislava Gap and the German flank in Czechoslovakia, says the Moscow correspondent of Reuter’s. Russian forces, under Marshal Malinovsky, are driving beyond the Ipol River, north of Budapest The Ipol crossing, apart from the increasing threat to Austria, places the Red Army in an advantageous position from which to break up German forces in Czechoslovakia. The German push north of Miskolcz. is forcing the Germans to face a flanking threat on a front of nearly 80 miles. Marshal Malinovsky is pushing out powerful infantry and mobile artillery ‘columns in a direct northerly thrust across the German lines of communications. The Russians, north of Miskolcz, have split the German positions on a 30-mile front and are rapidly developing an outflanking drive against the key road and rail junction of Kosice. A double threat to the important Slovak town of Kosice is developing from the latest Russian advances in the mountains of the Czecho-Hungarian frontier, says the Moscow correspondent of the British United Press. Once Kosice falls the Germans would have to evacuate a large part of Slovakia, including the mountain passes leading from Poland. One Russian force, pushing north-east from Miskolcz, has reached the plain extending as far as Kosice itself, and a second force is threatening to break through to Kosice from the south-east. The Russians, north-north-west and north of Miskolcz, are within four miles of the Czechoslovak frontier. and mopping up in this remaining small corner of north-east Hungary is nearing the end.