Evening star., 1944-07-29
Reds Believed
Within Sight Of
Polish Capital
Other Soviet Forces
Are Battling Through
Streets of SiedIce
MAP on Page A-2.)

BY the Associated Press.
MOSCOW, July 29.-The big
guns of the Red Army opened up
today on German troops in the
suburbs of Warsaw, while ad-
vance cavalry, scout cars and
tanks pushing from the south
east were believed within sight
of the Polish capital.
Marshal Konstantin K. Rokossov-
sky's advance units stabbed for
ward during the night from Kolbiel,
20 miles southeast of Warsaw, fol-
lowed by powerful artillery pieces
which were wheeled into position
for the bombardment.
Marshal Rokossovsky's right wing
moved on for the purpose Of joining
other Russian forces battling
through the streets of Siedlce, so
miles east of Warsaw, after cap
turing Brest-Litovsk.
"a Stockholm dispatch reported
the Germans planned a vast
strategic withdrawal on the Rus
sian front and that they would
make no further stand east of
Warsaw
10000 Believed Hemmed In.
Marshal Rokossovsky left units
under Kuban Cossack Gen. Phev to
help special mopping-up squads take
care of three Nazi divisions pinned
against the Western Bug River.
Field dispatches said it was the
same old story-thousands of Ger
mans waiting too long to retreat.
More than 10000 Nazis were be-
ieved hemmed in, with escape vir-
tually out of the question. With
Brest-Litovsk captured, Marshal
Rokossovsky freed numerous units
for fighting against Siedlce.
Meanwhile. in Northern Lithu-
ania, the Russians plunged to with
in so miles of Riga, Latvian seaport
on the Baltic, with the capture of
Joniskis, % miles north of the rail
junction of Siauliai. A German
| Army estimated at perhaps 300 900
was imperiled in Estonia and Latvia
with the cutting of the main Nazi
rail route to East Prussia.
The German radio said todav
that Red Army troops, in a
push practically cutting off the
Battles, had penetrated to Jel-
gava, 81 miles south of Riga, but
were later thrown out)
Jaroslaw and PrzemysI Fall.
In the south, the Nazi strongholds
of Jaroslaw and Przemysl fell to the
Russian Ukraine forces thrusting
westward toward Krakow on the
main trunk railway to Germany. A
march into Czechoslovakia through
the Carpatrian Mountain passes
loomed.
A dispatch from the Army news
paper Red Star said long lines Of
Poles, driving wagons and carts,
riding bicycles and pushing baby
carriages piled with household
goods, were following the Soviet
forces as they moved toward War
| saw.
Moscow waited to see whether
Marshal Rokossovsky would choose
to make frontal assault on Warsaw.
or make a feint here and throw
thousands of troops across the Wis
tula southeast of the city for q
march on Germany itself
A battle for the Upper Niemen
River was taking shape in the So
Wet Baltic republics.
Rearguards' Attempts Futile.
Front dispatches said Nazi rear.
guards sought to hold off Soviet
forces pushing south on the river,
but added that Gen. Ivan Bagra-
mian's tanks drove through them
while his cavalry cut them to pieces,
There were indications that the
Germans had placed great numbers
OF infantry along the Niemen River
from I1lSlt to kaunaS, N an effort
to stage a battle for East Prussia
along that line. The Russians were
reported IS miles from the river in
some sectors.
A weakness in the German plan
to fight battle for East Prussia
along the Nieman lies in the fact
that Soviet forces already are across
the river south of Kaunas, and are
edging up on the southern border Of
East Prussia from positions north
west Of captured Bialystok.
In Moscow the liberation Of Lith.
uania was regarded as possible with
In a week, and liberation of Latvia
and Estonia was expected a short
time later.
In the drive toward Krakow the
Russians were approaching the Wis
tok River, 80 miles to the east, the
first OF numerous north-south water
barriers in that sector.