Evening star., 1945-03-05
MAP on Page Az

Mup Ot L ug6 A-Gc
Py the Associated Press.
LONDON, Mar. 5.-MarShal
Gregory zhukov's big guns have
begun shelling the suburbs OF
Stettin which lie east of the
Oder River. Moscow dispatches
said today. and the Berlin high
command announced the fall OF
Stargard, fortress 10 miles east
of the big Baltic port.
After plunging triple spearheads
to the Baltic the Russians were re-
ported launching two powerful new
attacks-one to the north between
Stargard and the Oder toward Stet-
tin, and the other to the west, from
their Baltic toeholds, toward Stettin
Bay.
Advanced units already were in
sight of Stettin Bay.
Third Soviet Spearhead.
Two Russian spearheads on the
Baltic near Kolberg and at Koeslin
have been supplemented by third
farther east between Koeslin and
Schlawe, the Germans reported.
Stargard, one of the most i'm
portant outer defenses of Stettin,
was taken after a brief street fight
by Marshal Gregory Zhukov's 1st
White Russian Army, Berlin an
nounced
Capture of the city Of $4,000
knocked down one of the chief OBJ
stacles to a direct Russian attack
on Stettin, under threat from Rus
sian forces which had approached
to within IA miles on the south and
were now in position to push on
the city from the northeast.
62-Mile Gain in Four Days.
Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky's
2nd White Russian Army, overrun-
ming 800 localities in a four-day
62-mile advance which left piles of
Volkssturm dead in its wake, reached
the Baltic at two places.
The cutting of the land communi-
cations of perhaps 100000 German
troops in Eastern Pomerania, DAN
zig and the Polish Corridor in one
of the biggest encirclement opera
tions of the eastern front was an
nounced by Moscow last night. As
sociated Press Correspondent Eddy
Gilmore in Moscow had reported last
Thursday that Marshal RokosSovsky
had cut Danzig off by land and had
thrust in between several cities on
the Baltic coast.
THE Baltic spearhead which
gained 62 miles in four days in radio
silence struck out boldly to the west
today after setting up a strong foot
hold on the sea- Mr.. Gilmore re-
ported today.
Move In Behind Nazis.
'This force, made up of hard
hitting units of tanks, led by big
Stain machines, large numbers of
motorized infantry and supported
by an umbrella of Stormoviks and
medium bombers, has cut across
railways, highways and secondary
roads and is shaking in behind Ger
man groups east of the Oder Haff
or Stettin Bay"
Soviet front line dispatches, he
added, already had reported some
units within sight of the bay.
The Russians were striking toward
two steppingstone islands which
would give hem control of Stettin
Bay and permit them to deny Stet-
tins port facilities to the enemy
even if Stettin itself held out. 1t
is on the west side of the Oder.
The islands are Violin and Use
dom which separate Stettin Bay,
north of Stettin, from the sea. The
heavily fortified U-boat and sea-
plane base of Swinemuende is on
Usedom, westernmost of the two
islands.
Attempt to Improvise Line.
Mr.. Gilmore said survivors of two
German motorized divisions and
three infantry divisions were strug-
Cling back toward the bay and the
Oder and attempting to improvise
a line extending southwark from
Cammin through Gollnow to Alt
damn.
The Russian artillery was reported
by Moscow to be hammering at the
hinges of this line and interrupting
north south traffic behind the line.
VolksSturm grenadiers were said
to have been dealt a terrible beat
ing in this offensive.
Several thousands of these
clerks, farmers and workers ordinar-
lily considered too old or too young
to fight, veterans of the last war
and invalided veterans of this war
(See RUSSIA, Page A-4)