Evening star., 1944-03-24
Soviets Step Up
Drive 10 Within
Sight Of Prut
Nozis, Rumonions
Reported Fleeing
In Wild Confusion
MAP on Page Az
BY the Associated Press.

troops drew within sight of the Prut
River from heights Is miles away
today and continued their advance
In Bessarabia through the first foot
hills of the Carpathian Mountains.
The Prut is the boundary of Ru-
mania proper. The Dniester, which
was the prewar boundary, has been
preached on wide front. Five miles
beyond the Prut is an important
north-South railroad which is the
key to Northeastern Rumania.
Marshal Ivan S. Konev's I'd
Ukrainian Army was reported in
creasing the pace of its advance to-
ward the Prut, now that firmer and
higher ground is underfoot.
Between Tarnopol and Pro-
skurov where the Russians an
nounced 35-mile breakthrough,
the German communique said
grim defensive fighting against
superior Soviet combat groups
continues" The Germans assert
ed they had repulsed other Rus
slams northwest of Kovel, 80
miles from the Curzon Line in
old Poland. The Red Army also
was reported attacking south
east of Vitebsk in White Russia
with strong forces" and on two
sides of the isolated Crimea.)
Rumanians Reported Fleeing.
Boris Polevoy, war correspondent
In Bessarabia, wired Pravda that
the Germans and Rumanians were
fleeing in wild confusion, abandon
ing rifles and machine-guns.
They grab onto anything they
can, to carts and even tails of
horses" the dispatch said, some
more lucky ones fled on oxen" Po-
levoy said the peasants of Bessa-
rabia were meeting the advancing
Red Army in colorful professions,
bearing church banners and tradi-
tional offerings of bread and salt.
With Konev's swift advance
through Northeast Bessarabia
against Rumanian units, their Ger
man commanders appeared unable
to hold them together for deter
mined, concerted stand, field dis
patches said.
Nazis Feeling Strong Pressure.
The Nazis apparently were feel
Ing the strong pressure of the Rus
sian columns toward CzernowitZ,
important rail and highway city
at the foot of the Carpathians, ap-
proximateiy 80 miles due west of
Mogilev Podolski. They were re-
ported struggling desperately to
throw up defense lines around the
city as the Soviet drive developed
in intensity from the north and
the east. Czernowitz is regarded by
Soviet military experts as the key
to the Rumanian province of Boco-
vina.
Farther north Marshal Gregory
K. Zhukov's three -day-old drive,
which has liberated 200 populated
points in a 35mile advance, took his
forces into the heart of the COM
munications area controlling Lwow's
connections with the Lower Ukraine,
the Russians said.
This strong push by the lst
Ukrainian Army also outf1anked
Tarnopol, front dispatches reported,
and left the twin German defense
hastion of Proskurov to the east
within the Red Army's salient. 1t
appeared, these dispatches indicat-
eo, that the German counteroffen-
sive in this sector has been broken
and that immediate withdrawal or
destruction faces Marshal Erich Won
Mannsteln's Axis armies.
Advancing South of Tarnopol.
zhukoy's advance guards, pound
ing down the railway south of Tar
nopol, captured and passed the town
Of Kopchintse, 35 miles away, dis
patches from the front said, and
today they were reported less than
10 miles from the Prut River bound
ary line of Rumania and slightly
less than that distance from the
Czechoslovakia frontier.
This smashing drive, which swept
up the railroad towns of Mikulintsi
and Trembolvya as we'll as Kop-
chintse, left the Germans with only
single railway escape route west
from Tarnopol, already under attack
from the north, east and south by
Zhukov's troops.
Gen. Rodion Y. Malinovsky's Sd
Ukranian Army at the same time
was reported battling enemy troops
in the outskirts of Voznesensk, on
the Bug River, so miles north of
Nikolaev and 80 miles northeast of
Odessa. Nikolaev was more closely
threatened, front line dispatches
said, by a Russian thrust through
the town of Konstantinovka, 10
miles to the north, and by other
Red Army troops pressing the ports
defenses S miles to the southeast.
West of Voznesensk Red Army
units continued their mopping up
operations along the Bug River and
swung to the southwest. They cap
tured 80 towns southwest of Gaivo-
ron, the communique reported, in an
encircling maneuver which in
creased Russian pressure on Ger
man groups between the lower Bug
and tho nriecter