The Wilmington morning star., 1944-04-03
BASE 10 MILES AWAY
Germans and Rumanians
Being Pinned Against
Sea By Onrushing Reds

LONDON, Monday, April 3.-tR-
The Red army has smashed across
the Prut river into Rumania at
several points in the first Rus
sian invasion of Axis territory,
Moscow announced last night, and
a German broadcast early today
located the fighting near Iasi, key
rail junction 100 miles northeast of
the Rumanian capital, Bucharest.
Foreign Commissar Vyascheslav
Molotox announced the invasion of
Rumania, which he said was dictat-
ed by military necessity and not
with the aim of Selling ANY part
of Rumanian territory" or destroy
ing 'the existing social ORDER OF
the Axis ally.
Molotov did not announce when
the first crossing occurred, but
German reports for several days
have said the Iasi sector was the
scene of heavy fighting.
A German propaganda broad
cast early TO-DAY said "all the Ru-
manian army mas joined battle
with the Russians of Rumania's
borders"
One hundred and so miles to the
southeast a converging Red army
struck to within 10 miles of the
prize port of burning and pillaged
Odessa, where thousands of Ger
mans and Rumanians are being
pinned against the Black sea.
The historic crossing into Ru-
mania, whose finest troops already
lie in graves extending clear to
Stalingrad Or are bottled up in the
Crimea, came full week after
Russia gave that shaken Axis
satellite a chance to quit its part
nership with Germany.
The new Russian stroke has
thrown much of the Rumanian
population into panic and martial
law has been proclaimed in Buch-
Arrest, it's capital, reports said.
| German and Rumanian broad
casts said the Russians had cross.
ed the Prut, which they reached
last Sunday, near Iasi, key Ru-
manian rail hub where lines
branch southwark to the rich
Ploesti oil fields, ITO miles away,
and to Bucharest.
But it was probable the Russians
= also had entered north Rumania
since Moscow's daily communique
told of the capture of Gertsa,
Bucovina village on that frontier.
The Soviet high command
Estates that it is not pursuing the
enemy with the aim of Selling any
part of Rumanian territory" said
the broadcast recorded by the
Soviet Monitor. Nor is the Soviet
government action aimed at the
integrity of the existing social
order in Rumania. Entry into
Rumania has been rendered neces-
sary by the enemy's continued re
sistance."
: This was an obvious extension
of the Russian bid for Rumania to
desert Adolf Hitler and speed the
collapse of Germany.
Mobile Russian infantrymen, tank
+ crews and pilots under Marshal
, Ivan S. Konev, commander OF the
: Second Ukraine Army, were order
ed to pursue the enemy until he Is
routed and capitulates.
!, While Marshal Konev's troops
were pouring into Rumania toward
| the Carpathian mountains in the
west and toward the Danube Delta
in the south, the Third Ukraine
; Army under Gen. Rodion Y. Mali
novsky was engaged in looping
great moose around upwards OF
100000 German and Rumanlan
troops in the Odessa area.
Malinovsky's Stalingrad veterans
captured Alexandrovka, 10 miles
east of the big port, which was
reported already in flames be.
cause of German demolitlons,
seized Maximovski, 26 miles to the
northeast, Lyuboftyevska, 81 miles
(Ccntinued on Page Two; Col. y