Evening star., 1944-07-26
Other Soviet Forces
Surround and
Break Into lwow
MAP on Page A-4.)

BY the Associated Press.
MOSCOW, July 26. - Hard
riding CoSsacks today reached
the east bank of the Wisla Wis
tula) River, while other Rus
slams, supported for the first
time by American planes in di-
rect tactical operations, sur
rounded the German garrison at
LWoW and Stormed into that
great rail city.
The Wisla was reached in the
PulaWy area, 66 miles southeast of
threatened Warsaw. There the Co.'S
sacks engaged the battered Ger
mans within 358 miles of Berlin
and 142 of German Silesia.
Lightnings and Mustangs Of the
United States 18th Air Force flew
from American bases in Russia, de-
stroying 38 German planes in the
Lwow area without loss. They
strafed an airdrome 100 miles
northwest OF the surrounded city,
shot up German transport and gun
positions. Often they skinned the
trees to machine gun the fleeing
NaZis.
German broadcasters said the
Russians had reached the Wisla;
were threatening to engulf sur
rounded Stanislawow and Ko-
lomja in the Carpathian ap-
proaches to Czecho-Slovak terri
tory annexed by Hungary; and
that Nazi lines near the Baltic
had been pulled back around
Narva. The Germans said, more
over, that heavy Russian attacks
were being made on the fanked
Lithuanian fortress of Kaunas,
guarding the approaches to East
Prussia
Rolling Plain Beyond Wisla.
Beyond the Wisla a rolling plain,
ideal for tanks and horsemen such
as the heavily armed Cossacks, in
vites swift advance.
Other Russians driving frontally
on Warsaw along the main trunk
railway from Kiev were reported
between 40 and SO miles from the
Polish capital
Hungary and Czechoslovakia were
in the path of still another Russian
Army group which virtually sur
rounded Stanislawow and drove
within % miles of the Hungarian
held Tartar Pass in the Carpathians.
German garrisons at Bialystok
and Brest-Litovsk, far behind ad-
vancing Russian lines, appeared
trapped.
Gen. Ivan Bagramian's 1st Baltic
Army group encircled Daugavpils
Dvinsk. largest city in Eastern
Latvia, after severing the railway to
Riga on the Baltic. Daugavpils has
a population of 45,16O. Red troops
were less than 10 miles from Riga.
the last remaining escape valve for
the German 10th and 18th Armies
of Col. Gen. George Lindemann in
the Baltic region Perhaps 80 Nazi
divisions were threatened by the
swapping of the rail line.
Russians Take Lipsk.
Other Russians were on the ap-
proaches of East Prussia. They cap
tured Lipsk, miles from the Su-
walki Triangle (Which East Prussia
annexed in the Russian German
partition of Poland in 1882 and
within 25 miles of the prewar boun-
Diary of that province of the Prus-
sian Junkers. German reports have
placed the Russians within 8 miles
of East Prussia properD
Bialystok was invested. Russians
were in its outskirts within 4,50O
yards of the major rail center con-
trolling some traffic to East Prussia
and Warsaw.
Still other Russian forces were
reported within AZ miles of the cities
of Radon and 1O3 of Krakow, fifth
city of Poland.
There was no immediate estimate
OF the size of the doomed German
force in LWow, one Of Europe's ma
Jor rail centers and city of 17,700.
Twin advances by Marshal Ivan
D. Konev's 1st Ukrainian Army
group were hanking the fortress of
Przemysl on the north and south.
The city lies so miles due west of
Lwow and on the direct road to
Silesia, just north of the Carpa-
Than Range. One Soviet force was
reported 80 miles southeast of
Przemysl.
Nazis Trying to Reorganize.
Reports from Central Poland told
OF frantic German attempts to re-
organize their shattered armies.
Red Star said the Nazi Air Force
(See RUSSIA. Page A-3D