The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-04-25
Chaos And Panic
 In Nazi Capital
(Continued from Page D

toric districts of Berlin.
 The greater part of Berlin has become a jungle of stones, moun- tains of debris and yawning cra- ters," it's dispatch said
 A Moscow dispatch said the Rus sians were meeting steadily -increas- ing resistance as they punched deeper into the rubble- e-heaped heart of Berlin from the northwest, Eorth, east and south.
 NaM broadcasts admitted Berlin was seven-eights encircled. But Allied pilots said the Germans were rushing endorsements of men and armor from other fronts through the narrowing gap west of the city for what may be the last big battle of the European war.
 "All that is left of the German army seemed to be streaming back into Berlin" reported sn RAF squadron leader who joined Ameri- can and Russian flyers in spreading carnage through the enemy col umnS.
 Salutes Exchanged
 RAF tactical planes alone 6es- troyed or damaged 300 to 400 enemy vehicles yesterday on roads leading into Berlin from the west. They ex- changed salutes with Russian fighter planes over the capital.
 The Exchange Telegram Agency heard a station broadcast over the Luxembourg radio wavelength that the Russians had completed the oc- cupation of Berlin, but this appear ed premature.
 The broadcast asserted that the Red banner was flying over the Brandenburg gate on Unter Den Linden. Most houses were displaying white sheets, resistance had ended and only mopping up remained, it said.
 A junction of American and Rus sian forces south of Berlin was ex- pected to be announced momentar- fly by Washington, Moscow and London.
 A United Press dispatch from Moscow yesterday said the junction already had occurred, but a statf officer for the American First Army denied the report. First Army quar- ters expected the junction today. Marshal Ivan s. Konevs First Ukrainian Army closed up to or near the Elbe river opposite the American First Army along 54- mile front yesterday. Grossenha.n, 15 miles northwest of Dresden, was captured by the Soviets.
 Konevs army linked up with Marshal Gregory K. zhukovs First White Russian Army in eastern Berlin yesterday. Together they cleared 12 more districts of the city to bring 180 of Berlin's 33c square miles under Soviet control.
 Zhukov's forces also whipped IS miles around the northern outskirts of Berlin and cut the capitals last railway and super-highway to Ham, burg and the northern Redoubt along the North Sea. They pushed to within three miles of secondary, roundabout railway to Hamburg after capturing Nauen, 23 miles due west of the center of Berlin.
 Soviet accounts indicated the the Germans still held a l0-mile- wide corridor open west of Berlin yesterday, but it was being churned into a death trap by deluge of shells and bombs.
 Paul Joseph Goebbels, Nazi prop aganda minister and gauleiter of Berlin, appeMed by rcd.c to it's if- habitants to hold on until ''eonsid- erable" endorsements en route could join the battle and turn the tide.
 T am firmly convinced that the leadership and population of Ber- lin, between them, will succeed in throwing back this new enemy on- Slaught," he said.
 Our only wish and aim is to free Berlin again from its Bolshev- ist invaders. Bolshevism in the Reich capital? That would be a horror without end"
 There was some speculation that Goebbels' speech was a transcript tion made several days ago. Neu- tral sources reported earlier this week that he had fled Berlin, pos- sibly to Norway.
 The German-controlled Scan- dinavian telegraph bureau said Hitler was directing the defense of Berlin from a subterranean for tress under the high command building on Bendlerstrasse, already under Soviet artillery fire.
 B0mb-Proof Cellars
 The German radio insisted all other Reich ministers also still were in Berlin. Swedish and Swiss diplomats were in bomb-proof eel lars in the capital, the broadcast | said.
 Zhukovs first White Russian army drove seven miles inside Ber- lin yesterday and captured the big Schlesischer (Silesian) railway station on the east bank of the Spree River two and Q half milei east of Potsdamer Platz, geograph- ical center of the capital, and [ mile from Alexander Platz. 1 6chlesischer station also is tive miles from Hitler's Reichschancel. lery on the WilhelmstraSSe.
 The First Army also captured