The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-03-29
Reds Breach
Defense Line
Near Vienna
Four Enemy Strongholds
Captured In S weep
Through South

LONDON, Thursday, March 20.
1.-Two Russian armies, hurting
tbe Germans in northwestern Hun
gary back against the Austrian
border. have captured four enc
nv strongholds and preached the
vital Raba river defense line
guarding Vienna, now At miles
away, Moscow announced last
night
With the capture Of Gyor and
Komarom the Russians cracked
the Danube valleys defenses be-
fore the Bratislava gap, a key to
Vienna.
Other Russian troops far to the
north captured the Germans ma
jor Baltic naval base of Gdynia
by storm and occupied the west
bitter fighting.
The combined Second and Third
Ukraine armies under Marshals
Rodion Y. Malinovsky and Feodor
I. Tolbukhin made the drive in
Hungary through disintegrating
German defenses on 4 120-mile
front. Scoring gains up to II miles,
the Russians pushed within 10
miles Of the Austrian border.
Striking on a 29-mile wide Sec
tor, the Third Ukraine Army
crossed the Raba, Selling the sew
en-Way road and rail junction city
Of Csorna, eight miles beyond the
river, and the important communi-
cations hub of Sarvar, IA miles
east of Szombathely, a major bas-
ton in Vienna's defense system.
Together the two rampaging ar
mics swept up nearly 200 Hungar-
ian cities, towns and hamlets and
captured 1900 Germans. Gyor and
Komarom fell TO the Second Uk-
raine Army, driving westward
along the Danube's south bank.
Located 81 miles from Vienna
and 38 miles southeast of Bratis-
lava, Gyor is the largest railway
center in western Hungary. Koma-
rom, 20 miles northeast of Gyor,
lies on the south bank of the Dan
ube opposite the Czechoslovak cl-
ty of Komarno. Komarom and Ko-
marno, situated at the confluence
Of the Yah river with the Danube,
form major Danube valley
Strongpoint barring the way to the
l6-mile wide gap between Bratis-
lava and the northern shore OF the
Neusiedler Sc q a k e. toward
which Tolbukhin's men are drlv-
ing.
The Russian gains across the
the canal-laced Hungarian plans
constituted the southern arm OF a
larger operation in which four
massive Soviet armies are smash
ing at the ancient gateWays to
Bohemia and Moravia and forg-
ing huge pincers on Czechoslo-
yaka and Austria.
The only reference in the Rus
sian communique to operations
along the northern arm OF the pm
Gers was a statement that Soviet
heavy bombers had blasted Nor
avska OstraVa, Czechoslovakla,
third city, guarding an ancient IN
vasion route to Prague and Wen
na, 1875 miles to the southwest.
The Germans said, however,
that powerful Russian tank, imam
Try and artillery teams had sue
ceeded in smashing Nazi detenses
before the Moravian gap. Mosco"
announced Tuesday that Russian
units had won positions IA ml1e'
northeast of Moravska-Ostrava.
simultaneously the Germans oe
clared that Marshal Gregory n
Zhuko1 First White Russian Ar
my, striking out in Berlin ae
1ensiVe forefield, had seized the
fortress town of Lebus, on the
Oder rlver's west bank five miles
nor!n Of besieged Frankfurt ane
So miles from the threatened Relcf
capital.
A Moscow dispatch said tn
Russian supply system wa
working all-out to prepare
spring offensive" on this Iron
closest to Berlin.
The Russian gains across IN
canal-laced Hungarian plains COZ
STUFFED the soutern arm OF a Lara
er operation in which four ma:
SlFe Russian armies are smashln
a. the ancient gateways to 81
heoia and Moravia and torgln
HQse pincers on Czechoslovakl
AID Austria.