The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-12-29
Left Hungary Capital Afire
Continued from Page D

said the Germans and Hungarians were retreating slowly, westward, suffering enormous" losses in men and material, particularly in the area west of Budapest between the Danube and Lake Balaton.
 Swaying tank battles ragged at a half-dozen points on that 55-mile front as Marshal Feodor I. Tolbuk- hin's Third Ukrainian Army struck again and again in an effort to broach the enemy lines and turn their retreat into disorderly rout.
 In the Danube valley 30-odd miles above Budapest, Tolbukhins forces advanced four miles yesterday to take Naszmely and Toovaros and pushed into the outskirts of Tata, a heavily defended town 94 miles southeast of Vienna and 57 miles from the Austrian border.
 German resistance appeared to be weakening along the river bank and the Russians were reported driv- ing beyond Naszlnely less than 30 miles from the transit hub of Gyor and about 90 miles from Vienna.
 At the center of the Third Army line, where Axis resistance was stiff fest, the Soviets punched through the Bakony Hills at number of points west of Felsoegalla and Ban- hida to within 30 to 32 miles south east of Gyor. More than 500 enemy troops were killed and the Soviets took 56 German tanks and self propelled guns in that sector.
 Farther to the south, the Russians cleared the last seven miles of the Szekesfehervar-Balaton railway with flanking thrust into Polgardi and Jeno.
 At the same time, Marshal Rodion Y. Malinovsky's second Ukrainian Army cleared the narrow valley be- tween the Ipoly and Hron rivers and drove the enemy back to the west bank of the Hron on a 35-mile front extending from a point two miles west of the Danube crossings of Esztergom to the Slovak village Of Ryknik At Rybnik, the Sovlets were 97 miles due east of Vienna and GA miles from Bratislava, capi- tai of the Slovak puppet state.
 Unconfirmed reports from the continent said mass uprising of Slovak Partisans was brewing in the path of the Red Army, and that thousands of panic-Stricken Vlen- nese were evacuating the city.
 Suicidal Fight
 sa Hungarian troops continued thelr suicidal fight inside burning Buda- pest to win time for the defense of Austria. Twelve more of the capi- tals eastern suburbs fell to Mall novsky's forces yesterday in a gen. eral advance that overran the first of three defense belts guarding Pest, the eastern half of the city.
 The Russians hammered out gains of one to four miles and captured Dunakeszi, Alag. Arpadtelep, Ra- kosliget, and Pestszentloring among other suburban centers bordering Pest.
 At Pestszentlorinc, Malinovsky's troops were within six miles of a junction with Third Army forces acros sthe river in Buda which last night were reported battling for the western end of the Vasuti railway bridge.
 Berlin said fierce fighting was in progress around the bridge ap- breaches and that Russian guns and planes were pouring terrible fire into the center of the city
 Moscow also intimated that Tol- bukhin's siege guns were supporting the tank and infantry formations Tn the final hours of the battle. No new gains in the street fighting were claimed in the Soviet colnmunique, and front dispatches described the city as ring of smoke and flames.
 Heavy fighting also was continu- ing in the Pills hills northwest Of the capital, where thousands Of cornered Axis troops were being cut to pieces by Russian guns and in- fantrymen. Yesterday the Soviets took one of the enemy's main resist ance centers inside the pocket at Pilisszentkereszt, capturing 800 Hun garlans - the sole survivors of a full division entrenched there.