Evening star., 1944-09-17
Soviet Forces Enter
Sofia in Push Toward
YugosIav Frontier
Burning Warsaw SheIIed
And Reds Begin Laying
Pontoons Across VistuIu
BY the Associated Press.

oy tae AosoClhteQ EItSbs
LONDON, Sunday, Sept. IT,
Red Army troops yesterday rolled
through the capitulated Bull
garian capital of Sofia in their
drive toward Yugoslavia, only 30
miles beyond, while other Soviet
forces shelled burning Warsaw
and began laying pontoon as
sault bridges across the Vistula
River from the captured subur-
ban area of Praga.
Berlin broadcasts reported with
out Soviet confirmation that three
Red Armies. using upward of 40O,-
600 men in a big new offensive in
the north, had begun a drive on
Riga and that one spearhead in an
18-mile advance was only 20 miles
south of the Latvian capital on the
Baltic Sea.
A late dispatch said the Russians
had begun stringing pontoons on
the Vistula opposite Warsaw despite
the raking fire of German batteries
on the western banks. Officially,
Moscow merely reported that the
Red Army had extended it's artillery
arc with the seizure of additional
localities along the east bank of
the river northwest of the Praga
bridgehead.
900 Germans Killed.
A midnight communique supple
ment said the Germans had used
battalions Of prisoners and rear de-
tachments as we'll as a Hungarian
cavalry division in the bitter fight
ing around Praga, and that 600
Germans were killed in night and
day Na1 counterattacKs.
A communique from Gen. Bor,
Polish underground leader in War
saw, said his units had frustrated
German efforts to establish strong
points on the Vistula's western
banks with which to meet the Soviet
onslaught.
THE Germans are carrying out
widespread demolitions and blowing
up barracks, factory buildings, util-
ity works and big Office buildings" !"
the Polish statement said. I'VE are
established in closer contact with
a Soviet division in Praga."
Moscow dispatches said Russian
patrols already had entered the
Polish capital crossing the Vistula
from Praga and gathering valuable
information on German troop dis
positions.
Sofia Entry Announced.
A Moscow communique announced
the entry into Sofia by units of
Marshal Feodor 1. Tolbukhin's Sd
Ukraine Army, putting the Rus
slams within so airline miles of the
Skoplje- Nis-Belgrade Railway, Ger
man escape routs from Greece and
Lower Yugoslavia, which already
has been cut by Marshal Tito's
Partisans. Sofia is only 1O4 miles
north of the Greek port of Salonika.
Since their crossing into Bulgaria
September 8 the Russians had
travelled an airline distance of 225
miles to Sofia in their swift drive
to annihilate all the Axis troops
in Yugoslavia, Greece and Albania.
Elements of Marshal Rodion Y.
Malinovsky's I'd Ukraine Army al
ready had established contact with
the Yugoslav Partisans at Negotin,
south of the Danube River 100 miles
northwest of Sofia.
Bulgars Aid in Cleanup.
With Bulgaria seeking an armis-
tice with the Allies and declaring
war on Germany, Bulgar troops
were aiding in the Balkan cleanup.
In Northern Transylvania the
Russians, aided by Romanian troops,
captured more than so localities,
the Soviet communique said, in
Guiding Hodac, % miles northeast
of the German Hungarian strong
hold Of Targu-Mures. Other Soviet
troops already are within Is miles
Of Targu-Mures on the southeast.
In Northeastern Romania the
Russians also captured Vatra-
Dornei, SIS miles southeast of the
tip of Czechoslovakia and only 10
miles from Hungarian-annexed
(See RUSSIA, Page A-3.)