The Wilmington morning star., 1945-02-02
Kustrin Fight
RACES, Enemy
Radio Admits
Moscow Reveals Advances
OF IL Miles Toward
German Capital /

LONDON, Feb. 1. - CUP)
Panicky German broadcasts sald
tonight that Soviet tank spear
heads had reached the Oder river
80 to 80 miles northeast OF Berhn
while the Soviet High Command
announced advances Of up to IL
miles toward the German capital.
Alarmed enc my broadcasts
admitted fighting was raging IN
the streets of Kustrin, az miles
from Berlin. the last fortress city
remaining to the Nazis on the
northeastern roads to the capital,
and Red Army units were said to
have reached the Oders east bank
northwest of Kustrln.
The Soviet High Command COM
munique, which is one day behind
the fighting, did not confirm these
German reports. Duhringshot and
Liebenow, both 60 miles northeast
of Berlin, were the closest the Rus
slams themselves placed Red Army
forces to Berlin.
These adjoining towns were
taken in three-mile advance.
South of the Warthe river, other
forces advanced up to II miles
and hammered to within % miles
east of NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. by
winning Gleissen. More than 100
other places were taken on the
roads to Kustrin and Frankfurt,
Moscow said.
Sixty-miles to the southeast, Red
Army forces hammered into Ger
man Silesia in new area, captur-
ing Fraustadt, 81 miles northwest
of Breslau, in drive to ELIMINATE
big enemy pocket on the east
bank of the Oder.
The breath-taking advance OIL
the First White Russian Army was
unchecked and the Soviet news
paper Red Star predicted: the
doom of Adolf Hitler's 1,0OO-year
Reich is a matter of weeks"
A flood of runors regarding the
imninence of the battle of Berlin
swept neutral Europe. An ex-
change telegraph dispatch from
Stockholm quoted travellers arriv-
ing from Berlin by air, that Soviet
patrols reached the ''outer suburbs
of Berlin early this morning, but
withdrew without an engagement.
The roar of distant battle was
said to be audible in Berlin. Soviet
fighters and dive-bombers ranged
far ahead of advancing Red Army
spearheads, flashing Nazi reinforce
ments being rushed to the melting
German front.
The Nazi garrison in the encirci'
ed Vistula river fortress OF Torun,
1853 miles behind Kuestrin, sue
cumbed to Marshal Kokossovsky'1
Second White Russian Army and
1877 miles to the northeast, the
flaming East Prussian capital OF
Konigsberg was encircled. Con-
fusion bordering on anarchy re-
portedly reigned inside the city
crowded with 100000 refugees.
But the First White Russian
Army, under Stalin's deputy, Mar
shall Zhukov, held the spotlight.
It's tank and infantry forces were
plunging toward Berlin and the
capitals '1ast ditch Oder river
line on 60-mile arc. Berlin re-
ported that every hour new Rus
sian reinforcements we're coming
up to the front for what the enemy
called 1.-The big battle for the road
to Berlin
The Nazi DNB agency said to-
night that the Russians had broken
into the eastern part of 12-way
transit center of Kustrin, at the
confluence of the Oder and Warthe
rivers, only AZ miles east north
east of Berlin.
DNB claimed that daring
German counter attack cleaned
out the SOVIET assault forces, which
apparently had advanced 81 miles
overnight from Beyersdorf, q
miles northeast of Berlin.
The official German high COM
mand communique announced that
other Soviet tank spearheads, by
passing Kustrin on the north, had
reached the Oder river northwest
of the fortress city.
In this area, the Oder swings
northwest for 2-mile stretch be-
fore flowing northWard to empty
into the Baltic at the German port
If Ctottip Epopov hroo1coc+ Ala
not designate the exact area of the
Soviet penetration but in this area,
known as the Mittel Oderbruch.
where the Oder is 80 to SO miles
northeast of the German capital.
Continued on Page Three; Col. ~