Evening star., 1945-02-21
FrankfurtCut0fI
From Berlin for
Time, Nazis Say
Reds 81 Miles East
Of German Capital,
Russians Report
MAP on Page A-5.J
~ the Associated Press

BY the Associated Press.
LONDON, Feb. 21.-Marshal
Gregory Zhukov's troops. fight
ing to encircle Frankfurt on the
Oder, 38 miles east of Berlin,
temporarily" slashed the city's
lifelines to the capital, a German
military commentator said today.
The fortress town on the west
bank of the Oder is under siege and
the constant hammering of Russian
artillery and bombers, according to
the report from inside the city by
Transocean War Reporter Hans
Arntz.
His broadcast conceded with a
military review in the Moscow
newspaper Pravda which said the
Red Army was "a miles from Berlin.
This report, the closest the Rus
sian press has yet placed the Russian
troops to Berlin, did not give the
point of the penetration, but indi-
Gated it was in Marshal Zhukov's
sector and possibly west of the
Oder.
Frankfurt Repeatedly Assailed.
"The purchasers of stolen prop
erty in Frankfurt on the Oder have
fled to Berlin and no longer know
where to CO." said the review.
Arntz made the disclosure that
the trunk railroad and highway to
Berlin had been cut temporarily
along with the statement, "all roads
leading westward from Frankfurt
are now open"
He said the Germans were fight
ing defensively between Berlin and
the Frankfurt-Kuestrin front" on
the Oder.
The assault on Frankfurt, he
added, is being directed from
bridgeheads south of the city and
the Russians have repeatedly as
sailed the town, attempting en-
circlement."
The bulk of Frankfurt's $4,000
population has fed and the city has
been stripped for a deathstand de-
fense as bastion of Berlin, the
German broadcast said.
"GrenadeS are exploding in its
streets and Russian planes are fly
ing over the rooftops rattling their
machinegunS," he added. Frank
furt has become town without air
raid sirens as the occupants are
constantly on the jump.
Reds Gain in Guben Drive.
Many streets are lonely and dead.
Buildings are deserted and their oc-
cupants have fled to the west. Only
vital enterprises are still open. The
electricity supply has been cut down
and streetcars have ceased running.
Streetcars have been converted into
antitank barricades."
Premier Stain announced today
that Red Army troops have cap
tured the Polish town of Czersk, II
miles northwest of Chojnice and As
miles from Danzig. The city, on
the main Danzig- Berlin railroad,
was taken by troops of Marshal
KonStantine K. Rokossovsky's I'd
White Russian Army.
Meanwhile, the Russian 1st Uk-
raine Army drove steadily westward
toward the Neisse River stronghold
of Guben and the southern end of
Berlin's eastern defense wall along
the Oder.
Advancing as much as 10 miles
through heavily-forested region in
the face of persistent German
counterattacks, Marshal Ivan S.
Konev's troops yesterday captured
the hamlet of Schegelin, 8 miles east
of Guben and 81 miles south of
Berlin.
(The German radio this morn
ing reported fresh gains by Mar
shal Konev's troops in North
western Silesia, one broadcast
announcing that Soviet shock
troops have gained further
ground west of the Queis River
in their drive toward Berlin.'')
Two Forces Firmly Joined.
-Four miles to the north Marshal
Konev's right flank swept through
Neuendorf, on the southern bank
of the Oder 5 miles west of cap
(See RUSSIA, Page A-5.)
n AF 81