Evening star., 1945-01-19
MAP on Page A-3.J
By the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
LONDON, Jan. 19. Russian
troops, driving unchecked
through Western Poland, have
entered Lodz, Poland's second
largest city 10 miles southwest of
Warsaw, the Berlin radio an
nounced this morning as enemy
broadcasts suggested that a gen.
eral Nazi withdrawal onto Ger
man soil was under way.
Capture of Lodz, 65 miles from the
central Polish-German frontier,
would provide the Russians with an
important base for developing their
mighty offensive toward the heart
of the Reich.
By Russian account, Soviet spear
heads yesterday were driving toward
Lodz from points 80 miles northeast
and % miles southeast at a speed
which by now could easily have
taken them to the city.
In Hungary the German high
command announced that the Nazi
garrison of Budapest had withdrawn
to the west bank of the Danube, con-
flrming a Moscow announcement
that the enemy had been cleared
from Pest, on the east bank Buda,
the other half of Budapest, is on the
western bank.
The language of the German COM
munique indicated that the entire
Budapest position might have been
written off.
Fourth Russian Offensive.
AS the Russians continued to ad-
vance on their long Polish front
Premier Stain announced a fourth
offensive in the Carpathian fringe
of Southern Poland had scored a
break-through to depth of so miles
on a 38-mile front. The 4th Ukrain-
ian Army, led by Gen. Ivan Petrov,
hero of Odessa and Sevastopol, cap
tured Gorlice, IS miles southeast OF
Krakow; Jaslo, Is miles northeast
OF Gorlice, and 400 other towns,
Premier Stain said.
The premier's order of the day
indicated, however, that the Rus
slams in this drive south to TarnoW
and west of Sanok had advanced
much closer to Krakow by forcing
both the Wisloka and Dunajec Riv-
ers, north-south tributaries of the
Vistula.
Russian cavalry was thrown into
the Soviet sweep of Western Poland
that has covered 10 miles from War
saw to Lodz in two days.
Berlin admitted that several key
towns shielding the Silesian border
had been evacuated and limited that
a general withdrawal inside the
German border was under way.
A mighty frontal drive on Berlin
is beginning to take shape, Moscow
dispatches said. Lodz is $50 miles
from the German capital.
Overrun Countryside.
The troops of Marshals Gregory
Zhukov and Konstantin Rokossovsky
in the center and north were over
running the snow-covered country
side in fashion hardly matched in
this war, with Cossacks and Siberian
horsemen spearheading the advance.
The Red Air Force, out in the
strength of 10000 sorties in the last
70 hours, was reported master of
the skies and was sweeping German
airdromes just inside 'the Reichs
border with massed raids.
The German high command said
battle of the greatest ferocity'
was raging all along the Polish line
from Krakow and Czestochowa te
Lodz, Kutno and the Vistula River
Moscow dispatches confirmed Ger
man reports that Heinrich Hmm
ler's home guards, the Volkssturm
had been encountered on the FROM
tiers of Silesia, but so far Berlin
was the only source of reports that
Marshal Ivan Konev's 1st Ukrainian
Army had actually stormed to the
Reich's border at the southern enc
Of the Polish front.
Fau of Krakow Near.
The Russians were graphing with
ever-increasing numbers of Ger
mans in that, sector and Konev's
breakneck advance had been slowed
But Moscow dispatches said the fall
of Krakow, capital of Poland ir
ancient times, was imminent anc
that Red army units might actually
be across the German border.
The Russians, 8 miles outside
Krakow last night, had wedged inte
the city streets by this morning
Moscow reports said.
Konev's tanks already had battlee
into Polish Upper Silesia southwest
of Czestochowa, Is miles from thu
German Silesian border, and were
threatening the Krakow garrison
with encirclement.
Faced by the Russian squeeze
north of the Carpathians and tht
drive north of the Danube, which
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