Evening star., 1944-09-19
Soviet Army Tightens
Strang|ing Grip on
Nazi Lines in Latvia
Enemy Armored Reserves
Ground Down at Rute
Of Division q Doy
BY the Associated Press.

MOSCOW, Sept. 19.-Grindine
down German armored reserve.
at the rate of nearly one panzel
division a day.. the Red Army ha.
frightened a strangling grip or
the enemy's mid-Baltic commu.
nications in Latvia in a gigantic
f1ve-day battle which may be
another fulflllment of Premie,
Stains classic strategy-sur-
round and destroy!
Front reports today indicated
there still is no pause in the fero-
cious engagement begun Friday west
Of Jelgava, where the main Baltic
roads and railways meet.
The Russians claim to have
knocked out 40 tanks and 365
planes on the eastern front in the
last four days. Obviously most of
this punishment has been inflicted
in the Baltic sector.
The fate of the German nothern
army group, still estimated at more
than 20 divisions. may be decided
in the next few hours or days If
the Nazis fail to keep open the life
line from East Prussia through the
Jelgava area to the forces in East
ern Latvia and Estonia.
Narrow Coastal Corridor.
A coastal corridor little more than
20 miles wide now connects the Ger
mans above Riga with those holding
Western Latvia and Western Lith-
uania. The Russians once snapped
this lifeline by plunging to the sea,
but the Germans re-established 1t
in heavy fighting.
At the corridors narrowest point
the enemy is throwing in continu-
Gus heavy infantry and tank attacks
to drive wedge into the line held
by Gen. Ivan c. Bagramian's 1st
Baltic Army and attempt to nullify
Red Army plans to cut off and an
nihilate the German Army group
piecemeal.
(By German accounts the Rus
slams were making their greatest
effort to split the German Baltic
forces 81 miles northeast Of Riga
instead of in the Jelgava area.
Berlin said Red Army units in
that area had outflanked Valga
by crossing the Little Embajogi
River, but the Russians said
nothing of fighting there.
Berlin declared that three
Soviet armies totaling more than
100000 men had been hurled
against the German Baltic posi-
tions and one commentator pre-
dicted an imminent onslaught by
a fourth in the Narva sector of
Estonia's northeastern coast.
(Broadcasts from Germany
said Red Army units had driven
a deep penetration" northeast
Of Tartu in the direction of Tai
linn, Estonian capitalD
Silent on Warsaw Operations.
Official silence screened details of
the Soviet-Polish operations in the
Warsaw area, but German strong
points in the capital continued un-
der heavy Russian artillery fire.
The Vistula proved formidable
barrier to Marshal Konstantin
Rokossovsky who had to contend
with new enemy reinforcements
sent into action after he cleared the
Praga district on the east bank.
In the Carpathian highlands of
Southern Galicia, Col. Gen. Ivan
Petrov's 4th Ukranian Army pressed
on from the captured communica-
tlons network centered in Ustriki-
Dolnie, but the enemy retained a
strong bulge of positions on the
approaches to the Czechoslovak
frontier.
Petrovs difficulties of terrain
equaled or surpassed those of Mar
shal Rodion Y. Malinovsky in
Northern Transylvania where the
Russian-R -Romanian advance was
slowed down sharply.
Among 3,000-foot peaks, Petrovs
artillerymen manhandled their
guns into new placements while his
Alpine infantry methodically rooted
out enemy machinegun nests hidden
In caves and rocky ledges.
For nearly 48 hours there has
been no news of Marshal Feodor
I. Tolbulkin's progress in Bulgaria
west or south Of Sofia, but he is be-
lieved continuing to fan out at the
rear of the German garrison's re-
in the Southern Balkans.
y