Evening star., 1944-07-27
Reds Break Into
Brest-Litovsk;
Take BioIystok
MAP on Page Az
BULLETIN.

BULLETIN.
LONDON (P1.-Premier Sta
lin tonight announced the
capture of Stanislawow in the
Carpathian foothill ap-
proaches to CZechoSlovakia.
BY the Associated Press.
LONDON, July 27.-Russian
troops surged across the Vistula
River southeast of Warsaw to-
day, captured Bialystok, ITO
miles northeast of the Polish
capital, and were reported by
the Moscow radio to have
stormed into the streets of
BreSt-Litovsk.
Premier Stain announced the
capture of Bialystok in an order of
the dav:
Troops Of the I'd White Russian
front, after two days Of fighting,
today captured by storm the town
and large industrial center of Bialy-
stok, important railroad junction
and powerful fortified area covering
the road to Warsaw
The announcement from the Mos
COW radio, recorded by the Soviet
monitor, followed by several hours
a German broadcast statement that
Bialystok, a city of 81 900. had been
evacuated Stain ordered 20 salvos
from 224 guns.
Both the Russians and Germans
said the Vistula, last natural bar
rier to German Silesia, 140 miles to
the west, had been spanned.
Crucial Defense Points.
Both Brest-Litovsk and Bialystok
were crucial defense points along a
line which the Germans had
strengthened over several years.
Both had been bypassed and be-
sieged for about two weeks
The fall of both, following the
announced Red Army crossing of
the Vistula southeast of Warsaw,
would indicate a virtual collapse OF
the German central front. Warsaw,
a guardian city to German soil, was
under concentric threat from the
south, northeast and east.
The Berlin radio said defense lines
in the Brest-Litovsk area were taken
back under massed pressure of the
enemy" and Moscow reported street
fighting in the city of $4,000
The Germans said great tank
battle was developing on the level
planes around the Vistula River
bridgeheads-the same fiat terrain
which stretches without break to
German Silesia. The area is 355 air.
miles from Berlin. closest Allied ap-
proach to that capital.
Warsaw already could hear the
first sounds of approaching battle,
the Moscow newspaper Izvestia said,
quoting advices from the under
ground.
GA British broadcast heard in
New York by NBC said Russian
troops in one sector are 80 miles
from Warsaw
Reach River on 30-Mile Front.
The crossing OF the 600-foot wide
ViStula was in the Deblin- Pulawi
region 81 to 66 miles southeast OF
Warsaw, which had a peacetime
population of 1865, TOO The surge
across the stream posed an out
f1anking threat to the city. The
area of the penetration is 355 air!
line miles from Berlin on a histQnl'
invasion route. 1t is 140 miles "a
the border of German Silesia.
Russian Cossacks. tanks, infantry
and cannon reached the east bank
of the river yesterday on a 30-mile
front, driving before them the tat
tered and haggard Germans. Nazi
rearguards fed to the west bank
soon afterward and were enveloped
in cacophony of massed artillery
and mortar fire.
Polish troops are advancing be-
side the victorious Red Army"
Izvestia said. "Deblin is liberated
already and the capital Of Warsaw
listens to the remote detonation
of artillery"
BY capturing Delaytin in the Car
pathian foothills, 20 miles from the
Czech border, the Red Army posed
a threat to both Romania and Hun
gary, uneasy German puppet states.
At the top of the 1000 un-
dulating front. the capture of the
(See RUSSIA, Page A-2)