The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-03-07
Reds 60 Miles To Rumonio
BY HARRISON SALISBURY

(Unlte@ Press Staff COreeSpOn0ent)
 Moscow, Mar. 7.-(UP)--Marshal Gregory K. Zhukov's army of the Ukraine plunged through a 20.Inile gap in the Odessa Warsaw railway today to within less than 60 miles of Rumania, where wholesale flight from the threatened border region was reported under way.
 The landslide pace of the Russian break through on the Tarnopol. ProSkurov front was said to have touched off a new wave of panic in BesSarabia, northern Bukovina and neighboring Rulnanian terri tory, where authorities and peasants alike were fleeing the path of the Red Army.
 The confusion in Rumania was calculated to aggravate the NaM task of supplying some 500,000 Ger man troops threatened with envel- opment In the lower Ukraine. Their primary lifeline was broken when Soviet forces stormed across the railroad running northwest from Odessa, leaving them only rourld- about, secondary transport routes,
 Zhukov'S hreak.through was re- garded in military quarters as cer- tain to stimulate unrest in both Rumania and Bulgaria and probab- ly to shake the puppet governments in the Balkans to their foundations
 A big scale liquidation of com mercial and industrial assets in Northeastern Rumania WAS report ed in progress, with factories being dislnantled for transportation to the west as the Red Army cast an ominouS shadow southward to the Dniester.
 COmmunique
 GA German communique acknowl- edged heavy fighting of undimin- ished violence on the Shepetovka front. as 1t described the break through area. and said the Russians were attacking heavily in other sec- tors of the Ukraine.)
 One column rolled to within 10 miles of Tarnopol, strategic five way junction whose capture would shut off the last thin trickle of men and munitions reaching 500,o00 iso- lated Germans to the east over single-track line that loops below the severed section of the Odessa Warsaw trunk railway.
 The 1St Ukrainian army under the personal command of Marshal Gregory K. Zhukov. vice commits sar of defense, gained IS to 20 miles despite pre-spring thawS that turn ed the rich black farmlandS into fields of mud.
 German prisoners. 5000 of whom were taken in the first two days Of the offensive Saturday and Sunday, said their commanders had hoped the balmy weather woul give them a breathing spell in which to re- lieve battered divisions with fresh troops and equipment. but the cut- ting of the Odessa Warsaw railway doomed that hope.
 Soviet tank columns were reported in front dispatches to be churning forward, throwing mp a surf of mud. in an effort to reach the Carpathi- ans and force the trapped German divisions to the east to flee into RumanIa over rough. winding roads or across the Black Sea. snow virtually has disappeared from the southern Ukraine.
 Some 1000 additional Germans were killed when Soviet forces cut across the German lines of retreat in a series of outfianking maneu- vers. The toll boosted the Ger man dead in the first three days of fighting to nearly 22,OO0.
 Railway Cut
 The Russians cut across the Tar" nopol- ProSkurov sector of the Odessa. Warsaw railway. last Ger. man -held double-trunk railway in southern Russia. at three points, Volochisk, 2S miles east of TaFno. pol: Voitovtsy. II miles to the southeast. and Narkevlehi. 20 miles east of Valochisk.
 Pushing two miles south Of the railway, one Soviet force seized To- Aova, six miles southeast of vo- lochlsk.
 Another column drove down the ahepetovka. .Tarnopol railway and captured Zharaxll, only 10 miles northeast of T'AFnOpol. while other troops selsed I.opushino. 26 miles north of Tarnopol. 3T miles inside yAd Poland and 50 miles STomLwow, one ot the largest railway functions in all Europe.
 With Tarnopol under imminent threat, the Germans probably will bo forced Co rely on Lwow and the carpathians behind the city for