Evening star., 1944-08-01
Russians, Poles
Launch Mammoth
Attack on Suburb
MAP on Page AL
BY the Associated Press.

uIO VI WdlodW dCIOSS tllc VlSGulc
River east of the capital.
dispatches to London report
ed that Warsaw was in flames.
Billows of smoke were said to be
rolling from the capital, indi-
eating the Germans were putting
it to the torch in preparation for
evacuation.
(Other dispatches said that
Russian flyers reported demoli-
tions exploding in the heart of
the city and Izvestia, Moscow
newspaper, said "the Hitlerites
in their fury are burning and
blowing up many buildings" A
front dispatch reported at least
one German infantry division
already had been routed in the
battle for Warsaw)
Marshal Konstantin K. Rokossov.
sky, himself of Polish descent, per.
sonally directed the Red Army.
mammoth assault on the metropoli.
tan area of the Polish capital of l..
265, 700 from an advanced headquar.
ters.
One Of the greatest artillery con.
centrations of the entire eastern
front ripped into German entrench-
mentS on the edge of Praga.
Flanking Maneuvers.
Warsaw, first United Nations cap.
ital to hear the roar of liberatine
cannon and the keystone of Ger.
many's east wall, also was threat.
ened by flanking maneuvers ir
which the Red Army struggled tt
bridge the broad Vistula southeast
of the city. Another column fought
close to the stream on the north
west.
(Today's German communique
said Russian troops had forced
one breach across the Vistula
River" in the great bend some
go miles southeast. of Warsaw
and that Nazi troops had been
forced back on the northern
slopes of the Carpathians to-
ward Beskiden Pass.
CT'his official broadcast from
Berlin followed enemy radio re-
ports which said the Russians
had thrown five bridgeheads
across the Vistula but that four
were wiped out in counterat-
tacks and that the fifth was con-
tanned.
(The Beskiden Pass leads
across the Carpathians into the
Carpatho- Ukraine province of
Czechoslovakia which Hungary
annexed in the partition of that
country. Russian troops last
we're reported within 13 miles of
the Czechoslovak border.1
Co-ordinated Bombardment.
Marshal Rokossovsky, who has
been building up reserves for a
week, lashed forward with a co-or-
dinated air and ground lombard
ment which laid an explosive cur.
tain in front of his veteran infantry
The assault on Warsaw virtually
was matched in Importance by 8
three-pronged Red Army drive
against East Prussia in a sector now
143 miles wide Gen. Ivan Cher
niakhovsky's command advanced ir
to 81 miles and approached within
lib miles of East Prussia proper.
In neither direction - beyond
Warsaw nor toward East Prussia
can the German Army give furthe,
ground without imperiling the whole
structure of the Reich's eastern de-
fense, but on both of these fronts
the numerically superior Red Army
is forcing Hitler to scrape up all
reserves.
The latest communique announced
the Russians overran 2,144 localities
yesterday, a record for the Soviet
summer offensive.
Cherniakhovsky, the young Jew
ish general assigned the task of bat
tering into East Prussia, has me-
thodically prepared for conquest OF
the lake-dotted northern reaches OF
that province by clearing three big
road networks leading across the
frontier.
Point Toward Lyck.
From Kopiec, 11.8 miles from the
prewar Prussian border directly
west Of Grodno, one of Cherniak-
hovsky's three arms pointed at
Lyck, 20 miles away.
Another force was mopping up thu
Suwalki triangle, claimed by Hitler
as German land since 1899.
From Pilviskiai, farther north, thu
third arm thrust westward along ths
railway leading to Konigsberg, Eas
Prussia's capital of $685. and Ger.
many's 18th largest city.
Streams of German fugutives were
reported pouring back into Riga
greatest port of the Baltic republics
after Gen. Ivan c. Bagramian'.
army, sweeping through Latvia to-
ward the sea, captured Jelgava, 2.
miles southwest.
Soviet Scouts raced along botf
sides of the Lielnpe River, which
empties into the Baltic 20 miles
north of Jelgava and Ia miles west
of Riga.
The fall of Jelgava, described by
Premier Stain as "the main juno
ton of communications linking the
Baltic region with East Prussia u
left those Germans in Estonia and
Eastern Latvia with little chance of
escape except by sea.
Scourged from their positions east
OF the Vistula River, the Germans
fell back pell nell into Warsaw,
their streaming lines choking the
four bridges spanning the stream
from Praga. Rokossovskys advance
forces already could see buildings in
(See RUSSIA, Page A-2)