Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1944-04-02
Soviet Forces
Advance AIonu
1E-MiIe Front
MAP on Page A-10.)
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
LONDON, Sunday, April a.
The Red Army smashed to with
in "a miles of Odessa yesterday,
racing through nearly 200 vii
lagos on a 175-mile front above
that imperiled naval base and
inf1icting tremendous losses" on
Axis troops retreating toward
the Black Sea, Moscow an
nounced early today.
Badly mauled Axis columns
caught on the east bank of the
Tiligul estuary northeast of Odessa
were wiped out, said q midnight
Soviet bulletin, as the Russians
swept on over coastal and interior
roads Uttered with hundreds of
German and Rumanian dead and
wrecked Axis equipment.
In one sector an entire Rumanian
battalion deserted the Germans
and came over to the Red Army"
Moscow said, and large groups of
Rumanians also were surrendering
in other areas as powerful Soviet
forces steadily herded the enemy
into the Odessa bottleneck, and
moved swiftly in the west to cut
of the last rail escape routes into
Rumania.
Fight Way Into Khotin.
In the northwest the Russians
fought their way into Khotin, cap
turing the southern and central
parts Of that town astride the last
German escape route out OF the
Kamenets-Podolsk pocket just above
the Middle Dniester River in the
southwestern corner OF the Ukraine
A total of $500 Germans were killed
or surrendered in that area during
the day, the communique said.
Driving southwark in Bessarabia
and Western Russia toward Kish-
inev and Tiraspol, the Russians
gained II miles on a 75-mile front,
and moved to within As miles of
Radelmaya, key rail junction east
Of Tiraspol which the Germans must
hold If they are to withdraw most
of their exhausted legions from the
Odessa area.
A Berlin broadcast also said Sow
let spearheads had broken through
to the Tartar Pass leading through
the Carpathian Mountains into for
mer Czechoslovakia, now Hungary.
Koblevo Falls to Reds.
Koblevo, "a miles east of Odessa,
fell to Russian forces striking along
the Black Sea coast from Ochakov,
fortress city captured Friday. That
represented 14-mile gain.
On the northeast the Russians
were declared to have seized Tash-
inc and Blumenfeld, 80 miles from
Odessa, and on the north Red Army
tank crews rolled through Serbia,
a rail station % miles from Odessa.
There still was no indication from
Moscow Of a Red Army smash into
Rumania.
GA spokesman for the Soviet
sponsored Free Germany Ma
tional Committee declared in a
broadcast to Germany, however,
that some people laboring under
the delusion'' that the Russians
would fight with less determine
ton after they had cleared the
soil of Russia were making "a
terrible mistake"
c'The final aim of the powers
allied against Hitherto Germany"
said the spokesman, Maj Gen.
Martin Langmann, is the elimi-
nation of Hitler, of his system, of
his theology of conquest, and the
determination of racial arrogance
and claims of domination" The
Moscow radio broadcast was re-
ported by the United States For
eign Intelligence Service.)
Upwards of 100000 German and
Rumanian troops were threatened
with disaster in Lower Russia, dis
patches said, as they fed toward
Odessa, which the Axis captured
october 16, 1941, after months
siege.
The Russians seized more than 100
localities on the eastern and north
ern side of Odessa, said the daily
bulletin recorded by the Soviet mon
itor. On the northwest they rolled
through go others, including Troit-
skaya, a district center, and Vikto-
lGaa PIICGIA> pana ALL