Evening star., 1945-02-11
Others Poised for New Attacks;
Bres|au Almost Cut off by Reds
East Prussiun Port
Of EIbing Seized;
Berlin Bottle Secret
MAP on Page A-4.)
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
LONDON. Sunday, Feb. IL
Russian troops captured the East
Prussian port of Elbing yester-
day and drove a new Pomeranian
spearhead to within So miles of
the Baltic. while Berlin an
nounced that other powerful
southern formations had broken
into the suburbs of Liegnitz, big
industrial city and road hub
guarding the back door to Bres-
lau, Lower Silesian capital.
The battle for Berlins immediate
approaches was cloaked in security
silence byk Moscow, but German
broadcasts indicated the Red Army
had broken the last substantial Nazi
resistance east of the Oder River
and had crossed the stream in great
strength at points 80 to 43 miles
from Berlin.
Marshal Ivan S. Konev's 1st
Ukraine Army in Silesia was report
ed to have smashed Is miles west
of the Oder River in two days, pene-
trating to within 90 miles of Dresden,
German Saxony stronghold 80 miles
below imperilled Berlin, but Mos
cows communique did not mention
this sector either.
Site of Shipbuilding Yards.
An order of the day signed by
Premier Stain, presumably still at
the big three" meeting in the
Black Sea area, announced the fall
of Elbing, 80 miles southeast of
Danzig and S. miles southwest of
besieged Koenigsberg, East Prussian
capital.
Marshal K. K. Rokossovsky's 2nd
White Russian Army toppled Elbing,
city of 71,000 and the site of ship
building yards and big engineering
works. day after its encirclement
had been announced by the Rus
slams. His troops smashed a
fanaticaIly resisting garrison which
had been bolstered by German
marine units, and captured 1900
prisoners Thursday and Friday,
Moscow said.
Several thousand" Germans were
slain at Elbing, second largest city
In East Prussia and a factory GEN.
ter for locomotives, submarines and
torpedo boats, the midnight Soviet
supplemental communique said.
Four thousand Germans also were
killed during the day in the area of
Koenigsberg, 1t said.
The Germans had used the guns
of their last two sizeable ships, the
pocket battleships Admiral Scheer
and Luetzow, in an effort to hold
Elbing, the base for German coun-
terattackS which tried vainly to
break the trap sprung on thousands
of Nazi troops to the east. The
ships stood off the Baltic coast and
pumped shells into Russian posi-
tlonS, the enemy said.
Reds Freed for New Drives.
Elbing's fall released thousands Of
Russians for a probable assault to-
ward Danzig and also furnished
more Soviet striking power to be
turned against the remnants of
perhaps 100000 men originally esti-
mated trapped south and southwest
of Koenigsberg.
In narrowing this pocket to ap-
proximately $50 square miles of
East PruSsia's 1928 Gen. Ivan
Cherniakhovsky 3rd White Russian
Army captured Preussich-Eylau, an
eight-way road and rail junction
20 miles south of Koenigsberg
These troops also seized 80 nearby
localities on a 15-mile front during
the day, gaining up to three miles.
One hundred and 80 miles north
east of Berlin, in Pomerania, the
right wing of Marshal Gregory K.
Zhukov's Berlin bound 1st White
Russian Army overran 40 localities
on a 45-mile front, and all but en-
circled Deutsch-Kron large Ger
man communications center and
fortified city II miles northwest of
encircled Schneidemuehl.
Only a.six-mile gap remained to
be closed by the Russians who seized
Klausdorf, 81 miles northwest Of
Deutsch-Krone, and Stranz, four
miles southwest of the junction
town. Other points three miles
south and north Of Deutsch- Krone
had been captured previously.
Through the six-mile gap between
Klausdorf and Stranz the German