Evening star., 1945-02-14
Russians Enter
Soruu in Drive
FIonking Berlin
MAP on Page A-5.J
By the Associated Press.

LONDON, Feb. 14.-Red Army
troops have crashed through the
Germans Queis River line less
than SO miles from Dresden, a
Moscow dispatch said today, and
Berlin declared armored units to
the north had broken into Sorau,
junction city 83 miles southeast
of Berlin.
Marshal Ivan Konev's forces hit
ting westward I'm a sensational
threat to split Germany asunder
south of Berlin" were approaching
the Upper Neisse River, which runs
about so miles from Dresden, a di-
rect Moscow dispatch declared.
The German high command said
Marshal Konev's armor, beating
northward toward a junction with
other Red Army men along the
Oder east of Berlin, had broken into
Sorau, 8 miles northwest of Sagan
and across the Bober River. Sorau
is S miles inside Berlin's province
of Brandenburg.
Sommerfeld Reported Reached.
The Swiss radio quoted German
sources as saying Marshal Konev
already had lunged to Sommerfeld,
Is miles northwest of Sorau, and
within II miles of a junction of
Marshal Gregory Zhukov's troops on
the Oder.
Berlin broadcasts said Marshal
Konev inevitably is tearing gaps in
our lines, and that Volkssturm and
alarm units" were being thrown
into the fight to keep open retreat
lines to the west.
They also reported Marshal Zhu-
kov was "massing strong forces" on
the Frankfurt t-Fuerstenberg front
along the Oder for an assault on
Berlin.
Moscow dispatches said the Konev
forces were 18 miles or less from
the frontier of Saxony, of which
Dresden is the capital.
Reds 80 Miles from Prague.
Marshal Konev's lower wing was
only about 80 miles from Prague,
Czechoslovak capital. The conquest
of Budapest, whose siege cost the
enemy $4,000 troops captured or
killed, freed strong Russian forces
for new tasks. Premier Stain sig
nificantly described the Hungarian
capital as bastion on the route
to Vienna.
Moscow dispatches spoke of the
Germans growing debacle In ST.
lesia" under the Konev blows, and
said his vanguards nearing Saxony
were still meeting poorly armed
mobs Of the voIkssturm sprinkled
with some police and SIS detach-
ments."
THE decision. attributed to Hitler,
to hold besieged strong points on the
Oder such as Breslau and Glogau
doomed to annihilation army divi-
sions which otherwise might be re-
formed and used again to establish a
basic defense zone," said Associated
Press Correspondent Daniel de Luce
in Moscow.
Moscow still had no official COM
ment on German reports that Mar
shall Zhukov had thrown bridge
heads over the Oder within 80 to 40
miles of Berlin.
Drive on Other Cities.
Some of Marshal Zhukov's COL
umns were driving on Chojnice, in
the Polish Corridor 62 miles south
west of Danzig, and on Neustettin in
Pomerania IS miles west of Choj-
nice.
Marshal Konev cracked the Nazis'
Queis River line after similar rapid
thrust over the Bober River yester-
day in gains of up to 10 miles.
Towns which fell yesterday in
cluded Klitschdorf, 6S miles north
east of Dresden.
Both Klitschdorf and Neuhammer
another newly captured town, are
situated on the east bank of the
Queis River which, like the small
Tschirne River about 6 miles to
the west, flows north and joins the
Bober in the vicinity of Sagan.
The speed of the Konev advance
Is miles in two days-indicated there
was little to give him pause short
OF the Niesse River, 20 miles beyond
(See RUSSIA, Page A-6)