The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-02-07
.Naziis Report
Other Breaks
In RiverLine
Berlin Places Soviets Less
Than 30 Miles
Away

LONDON, Wednesday, Feb. T.
(RGThe Red Army h stormed
across the Oder southeast of Bres-
lau and penetrated II IL miles
beyond its west bank on 50-mile
front, Moscow announced last
night, while German reports said
the water barrier protecting Ber-
lin and the heart of the Reich had
been crossed by the Russians in
two other sectors as well.
Broadcasts from Berlin, again
reporting Soviet successes long be-
fore their confirmation by Moscow,
placed Red Army units west OF
the Oder northeast of Berlin. per-
haps less than 80 miles from the
battered capital, and northwest of
Breslau in the area of Steinau, a
Silesian city which the Germans
said they had evacuated.
The announc ement of the Silesi-
an crossing, made first in an order
of the day by Marshal Stain and
repeated in the nightly commune
que broadcast from Moscow, broke
the silence that had blanketed
operations of Marshal Konevs
First Ukraine Army for several
days.
But as the spotlight returned to
Konev's forces, Moscow fell silent
regarding Marshal Zhukov's First
White Russian Army deployed
along the river farther north.
The communicates only refer
ence to this army was a state
ment that it had captured a 1t.
Gen. Luebbe, commander of the
433rd German Infantry.
Aside fr m reporting minor
gains in East Prussia and Buda.
pest, the Moscow bulletin ignored
all the Eastern Front except the
Silesian sector.
Konev's drive across the Oder,
it said, captured Brieg, "a miles
southeast of Breslau: Ohlau, nine
miles northwest of Brieg and on
the Oder's west bank; Grottkau
south of Brieg and 10 miles west
of the Oder, and Thomaskirch,
southwest of Ohlau and seven and
one-ha1f miles southwest of the riv-
er.
The announcement described all
these points as important COM
munications functions and power.
full strongpoints of German de-
lenses on the west bank of the
Oder"
Also taken were Loewen and
Schurgast. b h approximately
nine miles southeast of Brieg.
Konev's front west of the Oder
thus extended from captured Op-
peln, capital of Upper (southern)
Silesia, northwest to Breslau.
His offensive had been reported
earlier by Berlin commentators.
who said it might indicate a drive
on Dresden, 100 miles to the west,
as well as move to outflank Bres.
lau.
But German accounts stated this
was not the only sect in which
the Red army had crossed the
Oder.
Broadcasts from Berlin said the
river had been forced at six or
more places in the Kustrin-Frank.
furt sector, northeast and directly
east Of Berlin. Moscow yet has not
announced any bridgeheads in that
sector, but Soviet broadcast de.
clared:
"Kustrn and Frankfort are be.
ng outflanked. No miracle can
ave Berlin. Its fall can be delayed
'nly for few weeks at the most"
Furious struggles on the west
'ank of the Oder northwest Of
lustrin, reported fr m Berlin,
have brought the Soviet
orces within 80 miles, perhaps
ess, of the Nazi capital. Official
announcements from Moscow place
Iarshal Zhukov's army 80 miles
rom Berlin at Zelin, on the Oder's
asst bank.
The German Transocean agency
aid the newest Russian bridge
eads were at Furstenberg, IA
niles south of Frankfurt and at a
oint little mora than three miles
outh of that city. 1t said another
temporary" crossing was made
orth of Frankfurt.
Zhukov' has broken into the outer
efenses of Frankfurt itself, said
It. Col Alfred Won Olberg, German
Military m m n ator, but he
laimed that Russian efforts to
stablish a bridgehead in the city
ad been repulsed
''The Oder has become a stream
on Page Three; Col u