The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-04-23
(NEA Telephoto)

tween SotcCJILl dIlu Lllc ChplCdA VA the west bank of the Oder.
 The specific point at which the Russians crossed the Oder below Stattin was not given. The broad- cast said the Russians were attack ing ,a waves of 1000 men, support ed by tanks and planes, but had been beaten off.
 All of northeast Berlin itself was solid mass of flames and smoke clouds" Soviet front dispatches said. Every able bodied male from l5 to 65, including Hitler youth, traf- fife police, litter carriers and factory workers, was said to have been thrown into the blazing battle. A dispatch to the Moscow news paper Pravda said U.ly alternate battahons of some of the new re- cruits were armed.
 | Our unarmed battalion was told to take weapons from the wounded" :" one prisoner told the Pravda cor respondent. But we didn't see anything through the smoke and dust. Then the Russians came"
 M. S. Handler, United Press Staff Correspondent in Moscow, cabled that the German position inside Berlin was deteriorating hourly.
 Paul Joseph Goebbels, Nazi propa- ganda minister and gauleiter of Berlin, was reported to have fled the capital less than 24 hours after promising to remain with the .n- habitants in a stand to the death.
 Behind him. however, even women and children had joined in manning hastily erected street barricades against the onrushing Soviets. A'l- tiaircraft guns in the capitals great defense system were deflected and used as anti-tank guns.
 Russian armored columns burst through the barricades and brought flaming buildings down around the German garrison with almost point blank artillery fire.
 They were advancing on solid 25-mile front from the northeast corner of Berlin Sixteen districte in the eastern and northeastern part of the city were captured yesterday alone.
 Eighty square miles of Berlin! 332-sQuare- area were cleared Scores of war plants, en auxiliary power station, tramWay depot ane other strategic buildings were cap tured.
 Artillery veterans of Stalingrac and Warsaw were supporting the attack with the heaviest lombard ment ever loosed on German city Adolf Hitler's Reichschancellery anc other buildings were hit, Stockholm reports said.
 More than 5000 Germans were 7 killed or captured yesterday. the oo- viet high command said It report ed that fighting continued day and night without s.lgle hours interruption"
 While the main Rusa-an armies aimed at the heart Of Berlin, re- serves of Marshal Gregory K. Zhu' kov's First White Russian group swung northwest and southwest ir bid to encircle the capital and it: defenders.
 The arms of the pincers at lasi reports were 30 miles apart. Ger man civilians were in panicky flight through the gap, neutral reports said. Some SS and regular army troops also were said to be joining the exodus.
 Clientele Captured
 Clientele, nine and half miles north of Berlin, fell to Soviet troop! on the northern arm of the pincers On the south, the Red Army cap tured Schlieben, 37 miles from American First Army troops al Wurzen, and Dahme. 10 miles far, ther north and 50 miles east of tht Americans at DeSsau.
 The Russians made their closes approach to the American lines, by official Soviet report, with the cap ture of Elsterwerda, 34 miles iron Wurzen and "A miles northwest O. Dresden.
 Torgau, where foreign reports saiC Soviet American junction alread! had been made, is 20 miles south : west of Schlieben and g northweS of ElsterWerda.
 On the southern flank of the 45 \ mile-wide Soviet wedge being driver across the southern approaches tt Berlin, the Russians captured Bis chofswerda, IA miles northeast o Dresden.
 Paris radio said the Russians un officially were reported to hav penetrated the suburbs of Dresden Moscow dispatches said the Ret Army already had severed the maii highway between Berlin and Ores den. cutting of virtually all escap to the south for the Berlin garrison Tn northern Austria. the Secon' Ukrainian Army gained up to st miles and drew close to the Mora vian border on a 25-mile front. Nor than 90 towns and villages wer captured.