The Wilmington morning star., 1944-07-11
Red Troops
Move West
To Prussia
RAIL CENTERS SEIZED
% Mile Advance Made
Toward Baltic Sea
By Russians

Singing westward all along
/ the central front, Soviet
troops captured today two
important railway centers
T1lniniec and Slonim, guard.
hng the direct routes to Brest'
hitovsk and Rialystok in old
Poland. and also cut the high.
way linking Daug avpils
i(Dvinsk) and Kaunas by a
28-mile advance toward the
Baltic sea, Moscow announc-
ed tonight.
The relentless Russian drive was
reported in Britiah press dispatch
es to have reached within 60 miles
Of east Prussia and on most of
me $50 mile front the Nazis were
falling back in disorder.
Fierce hand to hand fighting con-
tlnued in the streets of Wilno,
where the Soviet communique said
a large number of German troops
were encircled in the center of the
city and were being wiped out.
Premier Stain personally an
rounced the capture of Luniniec
GunineO and Slonim in special
order of the day Issued a few
fours after the Germans them
selves had announced the evacua-
ton of Luniniec, strate gically
important railway junction 30
miles east of Pinsk.
The Nazis' position there had
bcen made untenable by Russian
tnrusts through the Pripat marsh
es on both the north and south,
outflanking the railroad town and
repeatedly pressing within 20 miles
Of Pinsk, capital of the old Polish
province of Polesie.
The nightly communique record
ed by the Soviet monitor said that
Soviet troops in an advance of %
miles from previously announced
positions, had captured Utena in
Iithuania, placing them at h a
point within It's miles of the Baltic
Sea port of Memel, which Hitler
seized in 1899. This drive cut
tquarely across the highway run
nng between Kaunas, capital of
lithuania, an d Daugavpils in
southern Latvia.
Altogether nearly 500 places
were bagged in the days wide
spread drive.
Luniniec and Slonim were both
taken by the First White Russian
army of Marshal Konstantin K. Ro-
kossovsky, pounding steadily west-
ward along the southern sector of
the front, and the communique told
CT heayv bombing assault made
on Brest Litovsk, 125 miles west
OF Luniniec, Sunday night. More
II an a score of fires were started
by the raid and big explosions
we're observed among burning Ger
il4ou illluLary trains.
Another railway junction at Or
any, on the former Polish Lith-
nanlan border between Wilno and
Grodno, also was bombed and the
communique d violent explo-
slons were caused, envelopiNg the
whole area of the railyard in
flames.
BY the capture of Luniniec the
russians gained control of the
crossing of the North South rail-
road connecting Wilno and Rowne
ana the main east west line be-
lWen Brest Litovsk and Gomel.
Stain said Dnepr river naval
1lotlHa assisted in the capture,
Smelling Nazi troops on both banks
of the Pripat river south of Lun-
EIec.
slonim, IS miles northwest of
Lunlniec and % miles west of Bar
ahoWlcze, which was captured Sat-
ufoay, Was taken as Rokossovsky's
troops fought their way across the
nzczara river On front of 81
hllles. 1t is commune atoms cent
ef % miles east of Bialystok on
me line to Gomel. Fifty o h r
places In t h same sector also
We're taken.
AS the vanguard of the Red Ar
my plunged westward other units
continued hopping up German
remnants left behind and the COM
h-unlque announced that $500 more
prisoners had been rounded up
east of Minsk. This haul included
.nFee more Nazi generals, bringing
10 u the number taken on the Rus
sian front since the Soviet sum
+Ner campaign opened June %.
Ihls made a total of So, 1872 Ger.
mans killed or captured in h G
NIlnak trap since July 4.
Eighty places were taken in the
area of newly captured Ida, the
railway junction 80 miles direct
~ west of Minsk, and to the north
Ihe full fury of the Soviet onslaught
carried into more than 200 places
a1ound Wilno and more than 10(
southwest of Daugavpils.
~, "A big break through between
VINO and Daugavpils already has
peen foreshadowed by the Berlir
laolo, which also said that an all
out Soviet attack had been launch
eo long the Dvina river which
runs through southern Latvia.