The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-12-27
Reds Bottle TroPped Foe
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sional Germans scurrying from building to building. German gun batteries were said to have been mounted in the citys parks.
 Two Soviet spearheads were less than three miles from the Hungar- ian royal palace on the west bank of the Danube early today and field | dispatches said long columns of | men and armor were streaming into | the city from the north, west and l south to bring the seven-week siege 1 to triumphant close.
 (German broadcasts said other Russian forces on the east bank of the Danube had launched sup porting attack on the capital from that side, and admitted some ''in- filtration" of the Axis defenses)
 Nine suburban communities gird- ling the western half of Budapest fell to the onrushing Red army yes- terday, completing the isolation of thousands of Nazi and Hungarian troops in a 150-square mile pocket comprising the capital itself and its east bank districts.
 Just northwest of the capital, a second big Axis force was cut of in l the Pills Hills when the Russians swept across the northern edge of Budapest to the Danube while an- other column captured the Eszter- gom river crossing 19 miles to the northwest
 Front reports said the garrison inside Buda, most of them tough Nazi elite guards sworn to make the city another Stalingrad. were fight ing desperately from a chain of improvised Notifications built in subway tunnels, homes and office buildings.
 One Red army spearhead entered the metropolis from Budakeszi, 1 1-2 miles west of the city limits, and occupied zugliget, terminus of a suburban trolley line three miles from downtown Budapest. On its left flank, another force broke into the Lipotmezo district, also three miles from the city center.
 A third column took the south western suburb of Budafok, one mile from the city line, and the adja- cent Budaors section, site of Buda- pests main airport.
 Airport Under Fire
 With the city's second main iar- port on the east side of the Danube at Matyasfold already under artil- lery fire, the fall of Budaors ended the Nazis' last hope of supplying their trapped garrison by air.
 Pilissvorosvar, five miles north west of Budapest, also was taken by the Soviets. and another force swept around the northern end of the city on a three e-mile front, cap- turing Urom and Pomaz within two miles of the Danube. The Russians were believed to have reached the river beyond those towns.
 At the same time, Marshal Feo- dor I. Tolbukhin's Third Ukrainian army forces beat of fierce counter attacks along the western and northwestern perimeter of their siege arc and extended their belt around that side of the city to depth of 20 to 30 miles, precluding the possibility of Nazi relieving thrust into Budapest.
 Particularly fierce fighting was reported north of Szekesfehervar, where the Soviets destroyed 32 en- emy tanks and captured Csakar, Szar and Orosziany, the last 30 miles west of Budapest.
 New Russian successes also were reported northeast of the capital, where the Second Ukrainian army drove up to the Hrony river on the eastern edge of the Bratislava Plain The SovietS reached the river on 13-mile front from Rybnik to Svety Jur Ma Hrony, and midway between those towns took Horny Sec, 97 miles east of Vienna.
 Farther to the east, other Rus- sian forces drove within 15 miles south-southeast of the Slovak rail- way center of Losonc Gucenec), capturing Salgotarjan and IA other towns on the edge of the Matras mountains.
 The Soviet morning communiQue said 2,340 prisoners were taken on the Hungarian front yesterday, run ming the total enemy casualties for the past five days to 21,808 killed or ; captured.