Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-01-13
Reds Extend Drive TO- East Prussia
And North Hungary, Nazis Say;
Yanks Closing In on Houffa|ize
Berlin Admits
Russian Gains
In South Poland
BY the Associated Press.


LONDON, Jan. 13.-The Ger
mans declared today that the
Red Army had launched a gil
gantic winter offensive with
three mighty attacks in Poland,
East Prussia and Northern Hun
gary.
The major assault, the Germans
said, was from the Vistula River
bridgehead, approximately 100 miles
below German-held Warsaw. Ad-
uniting penetration of Nazi lines
west of Baranow, Berlin described
this offensive as "the biggest of all
time
Suggesting simultaneous thanking
drives both in the north and south,
$50 to 500 miles apart, the Germans
said the Russians dashed out on a
30-mile front in the East Prussian
sector after tremendous artillery
preparation, while a Russian force
of seven or eight divisions struck
Nazi lines on the Hungarian-Slo-
vakian border between Lucenec and
Kassa (Kosice3.
Moscow Silent on Reports.
Moscow remained silent on these
reports as the German high COM
mands declared that secondary at
tacks south of the Vistula and in
the northern sector of the Baranow
bridgehead were broken.
The German communique said
the Russians swept Nazi positions
on the East PrusSian border on both
sides of the Rominten Heath with
heavy artillery fire before launching
numerous attacks in battalion
strength. The German communi-
que said these attacks were warded
off and added that to the north
several Russian attacks from the
Memel bridgehead were repulsed.
The new push in Poland was re-
ported to have begun at dawn yes
terday. A Berlin dispatch to a.
Stockholm newspaper said it was
powered by eight Soviet armies
along go mile front.
Col. Ernst Won Hammer, German
military commentator, said "at
least three Russian armies, two tank
corps and other Independent units
are engaged in the Russian winter
offensive, which started yesterday
in the Vistula bridgehead west of |
Baranow" .5----e
A late report from Berlin to
Stockholm told of extremely violent
fighting" in South Poland.
When fighting subsidized in this |
area last August the Russians held
positions only 20 miles southeast of |
Kielce, rail town connecting Ger
man-held Warsaw with Krakow
Kielce and Krakow appear to be
the immediate detectives of the
fresh assault at the threshold of |
German Silesia.
Today's Moscow communiuue,
which made no mention of the Ger
man reports, announced that rem
nants of the NaZi garrison at Buda-
pest had been compressed into a |
pocket of 5 square miles in the
heart Of the Hungarian capital
Patrols Aid Reds.
The Soviet high command an
nounced last night that inside Bud
apest the Russians continued sys-
tematic liquidation of German and
Hungarian die-hards. A midnight
war bulletin said Hungarian patri-
OTIS had risen and were firing on
the Germans from cellars and
rooftops.
The patriot action brought re-
taliation from the Nazis, Moscow
said, adding:
Thousands of civilians are per-
ishing in the ruins"
Another 1876 city blocks fell to
the Soviet shock troops yesterday.
The Germans now hold only about
one-f1fth of the capital.
Most of the trapped enemy garri-
son was concentrated in Pest, east
ern half of the capital In Buda,
west of the Danube, Marshal Feodor
Tolbukhin's Sd Ukraine Army units
had driven to within a mile of the
river, the midnight communique
said.
Nazi Attack Repulsed.
Meanwhile, northwest of the CAPT.
tai, other Russian troops again re-
pulsed desperate German efforts to
break the arc of Soviet armor
around the city and relieve the Nazi
force.