Evening star., 1944-08-07
Reds Encounter
Fiercest Defense
OF 0f46-DayD Drive
German Resistance
Stiffening Under
Heavy Pressure
MAP on Page A-4.)
y the Associated Press.

MOSCOW, Aug. 7. - Eleven
Russian Army groups hammered
with artillery and bombers to-
day at the steel foundations of
Germany's east wall based on
Krakow, Warsaw and the for
ested border of East Prussia, en-
countering the toughest opposi-
tion in the 46-day summer often
sive.
Toward the southern extremity Of
the 1,200-mile meandering front the
Russians captured the oil and COM
munications center of Drohobycz,
chasing the Germans in a bloody
rout deep into the Carpathian
Mountain approaches to the Czech
slovak border. Red planes bounded
the fleeing enemy remorselessly
after destroying six troop and oil
trains at the Drohobycz station.
German resistance stiffened with
infantry and armored reserves max
ing final stand to save the Reich
from concerted invasion. The Rus
slams, capturing 30 villages in the
north, stood 5 to 25 miles from East
Prussia. In the south beyond the
preached Vistula River line they
were within rs miles of German
Silesia, highly industrialized coal
region. In this area they were but
80 miles from the Polish city of
Krakow.
Pressure Remains Intense.
Only in the Baltic states and on
the northern slopes of the Carpa-
thians did the war remain fluid.
(The Germans asserted they
had recaptured Jelgava in Latvia
in the 10-mile corridor to the
Baltic west of Riga
Russian pressure was intense
against all German strongpoints
Steadily encroaching westward
along the Carpathians, the Red
Army neared the moment when ii
could launch powerful blows toward
the Danube basin, which Is Ger
many's bread basket.
Warsaw, under siege for more than
a week, seethed with street fighting
between Poles and the German gar
rison. Fires still burned in the city
from German demolitions. Marshal
konstantin Rokossovsky presum-
ably was continuing to probe with
Russian and Polish infantry TO,
crossings of the Vistula which woulo
outflank the Polish capital from
north and south.
CThe Polish government In
exile in London said Polish un-
derground forces within Warsaw
were still fighting, and that
despite lack of ammunition had
seized several buildings in the
northwestern part of the city as
well as German barracks for
Elite SIS troops in the ghetto dis
trict of West-Central Warsaw
Nazis Appear to Be Trapped.
Hitting toward Krakow, last larg.
Nazi stronghold before German
Silesia, Red Army units appeared tt
have trapped a segment of enem,
troops In the San-Vistula River tri.
angle, more than 100 miles south o.
Warsaw.
Col. Gen. Ivan Petrov, taking ove]
the 4th Ukranian Army commanded
formerly by Gen. Feodor I. Tolbuh.
kin, emerged as the leader of ar
18th Army attacking the German!
on the long front from Finland tt
the Carpathians.
Premier Joseph Stain YESTERDAY
announced the fall of Drohobycz ii
special order of the day. The city
Gin the part of Galicia annexed by
Russia in the 1899 partition of Po.
land was the target of American
shuttle bombers last June ~.
Gen. Ivan D. Cherniakhovsky.
Sd White Russian Army was strik.
ing above the Niemen River in al
apparent drive toward Tilsit ant
the Baltic seaport of Memel IL
another effort to split German Arm,
groupings along the sea.
Enemy Positions Shelled.
South of the Niemen River tn,
Russians were from to Is mile
from the East Prussian border. So
Wet artillery hurled shells into Ger.
man positions beyond the border
and Russian planes hammered tar
gets inside the Nazi province.
Nazi resistance was fierce, but tn,
Russian troops erected sign post.
showing the dwindling mileage tt
the border and wrote underneath
Onward Comrades"
The latest Soviet communion,
said steady reinforcements" wer,
arriving in the Virbalis sector, wher,
Russian troops were only a few
miles from East Prussia on tn,
main Kaunas-Koenigsberg railway
Russian troops have cleared tn,
enemy from a 14-mile stretch O.
the Vistula's east bank between tn,
Sans mouth and Tarnobrzeg, tn,
Russian communique said. The,
seized other localities on the eas
bank of the Mielec, rail junction q