The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-11-19
The War On
 Many Fronts

The treatest RAP bombing fleet in history battered Berlin and the Rhineland chemical center of Lud- wigshafen last night, and today, U. s. Flying Fortresses struck at west ern Germany while far to the east powerful Russian armies beat down the last German strongholds bar ring the road to pre-war Poland.
 The rain-bound Italian front re- mained more or less static, but front reports indicated the weather had begun to improve and German and Allied patrols were active ell along the line.
 More than 1000 of the RATS four motored bombers launched the stag gering double blow at Germany last night, giving Berlin its 87th and possibly heaviest battering of the war and Ludwigshafen its second pounding in 24 hours.
 Upwards of 5000 tons of high ex- plosives and fire bombs crashed down on the two cities, with Berlin apparently receiving @ slightly larger share of the tonnage. Build ings were fattened over a vast area and fires leaping through the doom- ed cities were visible for scores of miles as the bombers roared away. The German DNB news agency said the Berlin raiders had petti- soned their explosives over crowded suburban areas of the capital, indi- eating the Nazis were preparing their people for heavy casualties. Twin Raids
 The twin raids marked the first 1,000-plane assaults since the spring and summer of 1942 when the RAF concentrated its blows in Cologne, Essen and Bremen. The weight of explosives dropped on Berlin may have equalled or surpassed the rec ord 1900 tons hurled on the capital on August g.
 Thirty-two British bombers were lost in the double raid, relatively small part of the great force in- volved.
 On the Russian front, Soviet troops plunged westward beyond captured Korosten to within 5 o miles of the old Polish frontier and closed in on the Germans White Russian stronghold of Gomel from three sides.
 Korosten, a five-way railroad junction 94 miles northwest of Kiev, was the main enemy bastion on the approaches to Poland and the speed of the Red Army indicated it might be across the frontier in less than a week. The collapse of the town re- leased Russian forces to help stem desperate German counter attacks 50 miles to the south where large NaI forces had temporarily stalled the Soviet advance near Zhitomir.
 Above Korosten, other Russian forces broke into the northern sub- urbs of Gomel and prepared to smash across the Dnieper river into the city from the west after captur- ing Rechitsa. 9 miles west of Go- mel. Rechitsa fell after three days of fierce street fighting in which hundreds of Nazi troops were driven to their deaths in the Dnieper.
 Threaten Gomel
 TWO other Russian columns threatened Gomel from across the Sozh river to the east and south. Rain-swollen rivers in Italy ham, pered operations on both sides, ex- cept for patrol clashes, but German artillery continued to pound the AL lied fronts in an effort to break up preparations for new drive against the NaI winter line. Allied heavy bombers smashed a. gain at the Eleusis airfield near At- hens and raided the Larissa field in northern Greece, while other raiders struck at German targets in Jugo- slavia and behind the Italian battle line.
 IT. the wake of the speading AL lied aerial offensive and the Rus sian advances, tension was reported increasing in Bulgaria. The German transocean News Agency said the evacuation of Sofia had been order ed and military observers said an Allied invasion of Bulgaria probably would be discussed by President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill and Premier Stalin at a meeting in the near future.
 Turkey also was reported deciding whether to throw in with the Allies to lay open Germany's Balkan flank.
 Swedish reports indicated the Nazis might also be facing o"ave political difficulties in occupied France. Marshal Henri Philippe Pe- tain was reported to have resigned as Chief of State after Pierre Laval had prevented him from announc- ing the reassembly of the French chamber of deputies.
 OIL FROM OCEAN