Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-03-28
Russians Cross
Last River in
Drive on Austria
Reds Also Occupy
Oder Fortress on
Front East of Berlin
BULLETIN.

BULLETIN.
LONDON tP). Russian
troops have captured the Bal
tic port of Gdynia, Premier
Stain announced tonight.
BY the Associated Press.
LONDON, Mar. GA German
military spokesman indicated
today that Russian forces driv-
ing up the Danube Valley as part
of a huge pincers movement on
CZechoslavakia and Vienna had
crossed the Raba River in Hun
gary. last water barrier to Aus
tria.
The Raba at some points is a scant
20 miles from the Austrian border.
The spokesman said fighting had
broken out at Sarvar, communica-
lions center west of the Raba, and
that the focus of the battle had
shifted to that place and the large
hub of Gyor, As miles to the north
east.
Berlin declared in an afternoon
broadcast that the LIST White Rus
sian Army had occupied Lebus, a
fortress on the west bank of the
Oder between Kuestrin and Frank
furt.
Fierce Three Hour Barrage.
German troops were subjected to
fierce three-hour artillery barrage
from Russian forces which occupied
Lebus," it added.
A German broadcast declared the
Soviets had forced new crossing of
the Oder River northwest of Kues-
trim, SO miles from Berlin. A Moscow
dispatch reported the Russian sup
ply system was working about to
prepare spring offensive" on this
front closest to the Nazi capital.
Other Russian units were cleaning
out Danzig, where the opening shots
of this war were fired, and fighting
into nearby Gdynia The German
high command reported fierce street
combat in both cities.
The Sd Ukrainian Army had
slammed through sagging Nazi de-
lenses below the Danube to within
20 miles of Austria and So of Vienna
yesterday, and the German high
command said Marshal Feodor Toll
bukhin's men now had thrust to the
Central Raba River, south of their
closest approach to Vienna.
Advances Made in SiIesia.
This new advance might have
been in the area of Sarvar on the
Central Raba, Is miles from the
Hungarian stronghold of Som
bathely. which is miles from the
Austrian border on the route to
Graz in Austria.
To the north the 1st and 4th
Ukrainian Armies were lunging
through German and Polish Silesia
toward Czechoslovakia. hitting for
the Moravian Gap to Prague and
Vienna.
This push from Silesia on an 30
mile front had struck to within IA
miles of Moravska- Ostrava, Czecho-
slovakia's third city.
Dispatches from Moscow said the
Red Air Force was aiding the ire
mendous Russian drives on a scale
seldom if ever before equaled by
Soviet planes.
Tet was taken yesterday by Mar
shall Tolbukhin's troops in the push
menacing Vienna.
Resistance Crumbling.
A Russian communique broadcast
by Moscow indicated German re-
sistance in Hungary was crumbling
all the way from the Danube on
the north to the shores of Lake Bal
{ .on on the south.
The war bulletin, which announced
the capture of Tet, also reported the
fall of Kisber in an outflanking
threat to the vital Danube bastion
of Komarom, 40 miles northwest of
Budapest, and. the communications
center of Gyor farther west.
Acs, 6 miles southwest of Komarom
and l6 northeast of Gyor, fell, too,
placing in peril German forces at
tempting to bar the Danube Valley
invasion route westward to Bratis-
lava and Vienna.
Seizure of Janoshaz, a seven-way
road junction on the canalized Mar
eel River, preached the Austrian
capitals first natural defense line.
This took the Russians within 80
miles of Graz, vital industrial city
in the Austrian Alps, and only 261s
miles southeast of Szombathely,
stronghold in Vienna's southeastern
defenSes.
At the same time, Soviet forces
cleaned up along the west bank of
Lake Balaton in a 14-mile advance
that carried to the road center of
Tapolcza, leaving only IL miles to
go to hold the entire lakes western
shore line