Evening star., 1944-07-16
Reds 8 Miles From
East Prussia; New
DriveinOId Poland
BY the Associated Press.

LONDON, Sunday July 49,
The Russians last night an.
nounced sweeping gains on thu
north central Nieman River
front, outflanking the German
fortress of Grodno and reaching
within 8 miles of the SuWalk
border OF East Prussia, and tht
German command announced
that a tremendous new Soviet
offensive had begun in the south
of Old Poland.
The Russian midnight communi
que announced successes all dowr
the Baltic-White Russian front
beginning with the capture o.
Opochka, "a miles east of the Lat.
Wan border. The Russians an.
nounced Friday night they hae
taken the railway station and were
fighting in the streets.
Moscow was silent on the South.
ern Polish front.
Westward in the big bulge thai
reaches along the lower Latviar
border and deep into Eastern Lithu.
ania, the Russians announced ex.
tension of their outflanking ma
neuver against Daugavpils with cap
ture Of Onikshty and Pichany, rail-
way towns go miles west of Daugav-
pills.
10 Miles From Kaunas.
West and southwest of Wilno the
Red Army moved less than l9 miles
from Kaunas, reporting the seizure
of the railway junction town OF
Kaisiadorys and Alytus, 80 miles
south of Kaunas. The Germans
said three days previously that the
Russians had taken Alytus, but the
Soviets remained silent until their
broadcast communique last night
In possibly the most significant
development of the day announced
by Moscow, the communique said
Soviet troops had reached the Me
men River line on a 75-mile from
north and south of Alytus and had
crossed that historic water barrier
at many points.
This put them less than eight
miles from the Suwalki triangle
that was annexed to East Russia in
September, 1899, and placed Rus
sian soldiers well northwest of
Grodno, which already was in the
process of being outfanked from
the southwest
In their drive to the Niemen River
north and northwest of Grodno,
the Russians listed capture of the
river towns of Druskieniki, Shon-
dubra, Privalka and Gozha. the
latter only eight miles from the
Suwalki border and nine miles above
Grodno. Crossing the river at that
point would put them even nearer
to German soil.
Pripet Area Being Cleared.
Some 80 miles south in their drive
toward Bialystok the Russians re-
ported they crossed the Rosa River
and seized numerous towns north of
Wolkowysk and west and southwest
of Slonim.
The process of clearing the Pripet
Marshes around Pinsk continued
with capture of several towns and
railway stations, the Russians said,
but there they halted their an
nouncements, saying that ION other
sectors of the front there were no
essential changes
This disagreed strongly with the
German high command and German
radio announcements which asserted
the Russians had launched major
offensive toward Lwow in the south
ern part of Old Poland, extending
the active front to a length of
more than 700 miles.
The midnight Russian supple
mental communique said 5000 Ger
mans were killed and 500 captured
in the seizure of Opochka, that the
German garrison at Alytus was
wiped out, and that 1000 Germans
were killed in successes scored north
of Wolkowysk. Huge quantities of
Nazi equipment also were captured,
it said.
Soviet airmen blasted seven Ger
man trains and left large oil stores
exploding in raids on Kobryn and
Yanuv, west of fallen Pinsk, and
also blew up loaded freight cars at
Daugaypils. the bulletin said.
Seen as Shift of Soviet Strength.
The new thrust, the Germans
said, was aimed west and southwest
from the strategic area between
Luck and Tarnopol, bases which the
Russians seized in the last stages of
their winter offensive.
The new drive, announced by the
Germans, was described by Berlin
as a highly important military event
and as the "curtain-raiser" to a
probable shift of the main Russian
strength to the southern sector.
Gains through the German for
ward line by hard-driving Russian
tankmen and several infantry di-
visions were admitted officially, but
the Germans made their usual
claim to have rectified or sealed of
these dents" as they called them,
and said LIT Russian tanks had been
destroyed in a days fighting.
The Germans originally were
sucked out of position for the White
Russian offensive that began June
% by massing their defensive
strength on the Lwow front, where
they long had expected a fullscale
assault.
If the Naiz reports of the offen-
sive in the south are borne out,
it appeared likely that the Russians
had waited until German troops
were pulled up to defend East Prus-
sia, and then had struck at the
strategic Lwow area.
IU0w moe Loco tbo~ an ,ou.-