The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-04-13
Soviiets Cut
Last Escape
From Vienna
Berlin Reports G enera ]
Withdrawal Toward
Hitler's Retreat

LONDON. Friday, April 13.-R
Russian armored forces, leav-
ing doomed Nazi forces in Vienna
only a seven-nile escape gap,
yesterday cut the Austrian capl-
tails last lifelines with the Czech
oslovak city of Bruenn Brno)
while spearheads burst within 50
miles of that war arsenal city in
an invasion of southern Moravla.
In the rubb1e-strewn streets of
Vienna, tommygunners of Mar
shall F'eodor I Tolbukhin's Third
Ukrainian Army battled in bitter
house-to-house fighting and clear
ed Nazi hold-out troops from gu
blocks OF the Jewish quarter OF
Leopoldstadt between the Danube
and the Danube canal.
While Russian river gunboats
landed Marines in the rear OF
German remnants in Vienna, Ber-
lin reported a general Nazi with
drawal along the Danube valley
west of the capital toward Hitler S
Bavarian mountain fortress at
Berchtesgaden.
South of Vienna, mountain
fighters Of Marshal Tolbukhin's
army battled into the foothills Of
the Austrian Alps on a 28-mlle
front. Selling more than 40 towns
and villages on the roads to Graz,
Austria's second city. The front
extended from Markt-Allhau, 80
miles northeast, to Eltendorf. IS
miles east in the Feistritz river
valley.
Northeast of Vienna, Moscow re-
vealed that Marshal Y. Malinov-
sky's Second Ukrainian army had
crossed the Moravian frontier and
invaded that last great war ar
senal of the lettering German
Wehrmacht by capturing the will
ago Of Radejov
Capturing 80 towns and villages
in the area, Malinovsky' men
drove within two miles southwest
of the great rail center OF Hod-
min by taking Katov, where the
onrushing Soviet spreaheads wers
80 miles southeast Of the great
war production center of Bruenn
(Brno).
North OF Vienna, Malinovs!zy
threw 5000 infantrymen and two
motorized corps into battle on
the Marchfeld plain in a drive to
close an iron ring around the cap
ital. After heavy tank battle.
Malinovslsy' troops swept across
the Vienna-Bruenn highway and
railroad by taking the road and
rail junction of Eibersbrunn, five
miles north of Vienna.
While 5000 enemy troops were
captured in street battles In Wen
ma, Malincvsky's troops drove
within saven miles of the Danube
northwest Of Vienna. Within the
narrow escape corridor runs
highway and railroad to Prague,
but both Berlin and Moscow re-
ports said that Russian troops
had crossed the Danube in this
area to cut across these lines.
There was no confirmation of
this from Moscow, but it was evil
dent that the last possible escape
lines were under violent artillery
fire.
The Nazi Transocean agency
reported Wholesale Nazi Olsen
gaging movements in the Danube
valley just west of Vienna, a clas-
sic invasion route to Bavaria.
German withdrawals in Austria
within l6 miles Of Berchtesgaden
and IS miles of Bavaria followed
Nazi breakfasts that Marshal
Tolbukhin;s Third Ukrainian Ar
my was leaving beleaguered We
emma far behind and attacking
with all speed up the Danube val
ley toward Linz and Munich.
Berlin virtually wrote off the
Austrian capital as lost, the
Transocean agency saying gloom
lily: "The decision is at hand. .
the battl. rapidly Is approaching
its end''
To protect the withdrawal in
Austria, Berlin asserted Nazi
troops were exerting pressure be.
tween the Drava and the Danube
on the roads to Austria's second
city of Graz, from which Soviet
mountain fighters were 81 miles
away in the heart of the Austrian
Alps.