BATTLE FOR HARBIN

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23279, 15 August 1945, Page 5

BATTLE FOR HARBIN

Russians North Of City

(11 p.m.) LONDON. August 14. The battle for Harbin is taking shape, says the Moscow correspondent of the American Associated Press. The Russians north of the city made a rapid advance down the Sungari River as well as spreading out into the vast territory between the Sungari and Ussuri Rivers.

Frontline correspondents say that resistance is stiff on the Manchurian plain, where advanced mobile units are probing the Japanese positions. Marshal Malinovsky's Trans-Baikal Army is extending its front and using more mountain passes. General Meterzkov’s forces are approaching the plain from the east and spreading south as well as east along the Far Eastern railway. The Russians are not revealing details of the campaign in Korea, but it is believed in Moscow that the Red Army is pursuing the Japanese down the coast. The Russians have not confirmed the Japanese report of landings in the southern half of Sakhalin. According to Chungking dispatches, quoted bv the Brussels radio, the Communist 18th Army group has launched a strong attack in co-operation with Soviet forces. The Tokio radio announced that the Russians are 20 miles into Karafuto in the land Invasion across the border.