Evening star., 1945-02-08
Capture Of Kuestrin Imminent:
Yanks Seize West Wall Bastion
Soviet Forces
Enter Suburbs
Of Frankfurt
MAP on Page A-2.J

By the Associated Press.
LONDON, Feb. 8.-The Moscow
radio today said the "Oder line
has been pierced and Berlin in
panic is witnessing the crumbling
of the last obstacles in it's fore
field"
An earlier broadcast by an Amer
lean radio commentator said Pre-
mier Stalin's capital was hourly ex-
pecting an official announcement
that Marshal Gregory Zhukov's 1st
White Russian Army had smashed
across the river in force, 'signifying
the complete breakdown of the Oder
line"
Berlin accounts said the Russians
had hammered out seven bridge
heads on the Berlin front, one of
them 80 miles northeast of the capi-
ttal, and dozen others along 1875
miles of the river from. Ratibor in
Silesia to Gutenberg, so miles south
east of Frankfurt.
The Moscow radio said Heinrich
Himmler had massed SIS troops in
the capital. Roads south and west
Of Berlin were reported jammed with
the traffic of refugees in flight.
"a Finnish broadcast re-
corded in London by the British
Broadcasting Corp. said Russian
tanks have probed to the out
skirts of Berlin')
Guns Pound Weakest Link.
While Premier Stain had not
confirmed the breaking of the Oder
line on the Berlin front, Soviet ad-
vices said Marshal Khukov's massed
artillery was pounding at the weak
est link of the capitals defense, the
low western bank of the Oder be-
tween Kuestrin and Stettin, where
1t runs northeast of Berlin.
Officially. Moscow blacked out the
progress of the fierce battle on the
west side of the river and told only
of the liquidation of additional Ger
man pockets on the east side.
But Moscow dispatches said Kue-
strin, 40 miles east of Berlin and
one of the chief fortified areas
guarding the capital, was about to |
fall. with Soviet tommygunners
fighting in the streets under cover
from artillery batteries stationed
only 2 miles from the northern out
skirts.
Below Kuestrin and the Warthe
River, Zhukov'S men captured Kun
ersdorf, tn Russian-German' battle
ground of 1859, 3 miles outside
Frankfurt.
Reports later than the Russian
communique said the Russians had
gone on and fought on into the
suburbs of Frankfurt-perhaps the
suburb of Damvorst, just across the
river from Frankfurt and connected
with the main city by a 9O0-foot
bridge.
Aurith, miles below Frankfurt,
also fell.
5000 Nazis Killed.
The Soviet communique, telling of
5000 more Nazis killed in a single
day on the central Oder front, said
the battle had moved into the "for-
titled forefield of Berlin"
German military commentators
said Kuestrin was under "concentric
attack by strong Russian forma-
tons"
The Russian communique, an
nouncing victories northwest of
Kuestrin where the low western
bank of the Oder offers the least
obstacle to the storming of Ger
many's last natural defense line in
the east, said Alt-Drewitz, northern
suburb OF Kuestrin, had been cap
tured.
Broadening his north wing threat
to Berlin along the Oder, zhukov
seized Zaekerik, 81 miles northwest
Of Kuestrin on the east bank and
only 5 miles from where the river
bends north toward Stettin. Zae-
kerik is 80 miles northeast of Berlin.
Other places on the east bank
(Coo DTTCCTA no~. -