Evening star., 1945-02-07
Another CROSSING
Of Oder East of
Berlin Reported
MAP on Page A-l.)
BY the Associated Press.

6y tHe hsSoclateQ fresS.
LONDON. Feb. IA German
military spokesman declared to-
day the Russians had set up a
new bridgehead over the Oder
River south of Kuestrin, and ex-
panded another foothold above
kuestrin and within about IS
miles of Berlin.
The Berlin -Kuestrin railroad Is
under Soviet artillery fire, enemy
broadcasts said. Russian gains in
the trans-Oder breach in Silesia
were acknowledged, and Berlin said
the Red Army had won and then lost
Pyritz, "a miles southeast Of Stettin.
In a push aimed at the Baltic coast.
The new bridgehead across the
Central Oder on the shortest route
to Berlin was the seventh reported
by the Germans. The broadcast
termed Il a small one, but said "it
enables the Russians to shell the
railroad leading from the west to
the fortress of Kuestrin with their
heavy artillery"
The Germans said IL Soviet tanks
had smashed temporarily" into the
center of Kuestrm itself. 40 miles
from Berlin.
Attacks All Along Front.
The Soviets are assaulting heavily
along the entire east front from
Slovakia to East Prussia the Ger
mans said.
Marshal Gregory Zhukov was
hammering the Kuestrin- Frankfurt
zone with q record concentration
of artillery. Moscow dispatches said.
He has not yet claimed a crossing
In Silesia the Germans reported
new gains by Marshal Ivan Konev's
LIST Ukrainian Army. which had
breach 4 the Oder on a 50-mile
front md plunged l2ia miles be-
yond @he stream in drive menac-
ing Berlin from the flank and the
Berlin-Prague defense axis.
Marshal konev's flying columns
fought close to the enemy's remain
ing railroad and highway routes
along the Silesian side of the old
German C eel oslovak frontier.
Other units pressed toward the rail
junction of Liegnitz on the way to
Saxony.
Konev was $50 miles from Dresden,
and push westward toward Gen.
trail Germany would imperil German
plans for stand in Souther-- Ger
many and Bohemia after Berlin is
lost. His troops in this broad cross
ing Of the Oder were l80 miles south
east Of Berlin.
Fierce Nazi Resistance.
Premier Stain announced Marshal
Konev's advance in an order of the
day yesterday.
Today's Berlin broadcasts said the
Soviets' bridgeheads in the Kue-
strin sector had been expanded de-
spite fierce German resistance. They
pictured desperate battle for Kue-
strin itself, saying the IL Red Army
tanks which penetrated tempo
rarily into the center" of the town
were repulsed in battles in which
citizens fought beside Nazi soldiers.
Front dispatches to Moscow said
fighting east of Berlin had increased
in tempo and that Red infantry had
to push through a thick web of
barbed-wire entanglements and
series of trenches covered by fire
from portable. steel-turreted pill
boxes sunk in the, earth.
Marshal Konev, who also had been
the first to forge the Dnepr, Bug and
Vistula Rivers, was hampered by
mud and slush from a thaw.
Reds Astride Superhighway.
In thrusting beyond the Oder in
Silesia, the Russian forces were
astride a superhighway running al
most in a bee-line to Berlin, 180
miles to the northwest.
Combining propaganda with the
military achievements of the west
ward marching Russian Armies, the
Moscow radio urged the German
people to revolt because mo miracle
can save Berlin any more" The Ger
mans themselves took a gloomy view
in their broadcasts.
Aside from announcing that Mar
shal Konev's troops were steadily
expanding the SileSian bridgeheaA,
the latest official Moscow war re-
ports disclosed only minor advances
in East Prussia and further prog
ress in cleaning out the isolated
Nazi garrison in Budapest.
Moscow gave no details of the
fighting on the 1st White Russian
front east of Berlin, where Marshal
zhukov's forces were posing the most
immediate threat to the capital.
Latest official Moscow announce