Evening star., 1945-01-19
Russiiu
Continued From First Page. }

would be given additional impetu,
with the fall of Budapest, the Ger
man high command said it was car
rying out a "disengaging movement
in Eastern Slovakia, where thin
mountain wedge is thrust into Soviet
lines.
Communication Lines Cut.
Moscow dispatches said that on
the Polish plains the Germans had
not yet been able to form any SEM
blance of a defense line, although
they were trying to shape up some
sort of defense west of Lodz, just
short of the Reich frontier.
They were handicapped, however
by the cutting of important north
south communication lines. Some
entire divisions had been cut off
commanders had become lost from
their detachments, and Soviet writ
ers said the drive north toward
Lodz was along a route packed with
abandoned tanks, trucks, automo-
biles and guns" with small arms and
equipment scattered everywhere.
Small groups of Germans were
found wandering through the for
ests and fields seeking food and
shelter and some one to whom they
could surrender.
The Germans were hurriedly min
ing roads and blowing up bridges.
The German account of fierce bat
Ting with Soviet tanks along the
line from Krakow and Czestochowa
to Lodz, Kutno and the Vistula, in
dicated that Marshal Zhukov's 1st
White Russian Army was sweeping
forward in virtually solid front.
On Main Railway Lines.
All these points are on one of the
main railway lines linking Silesia
with Konigsberg in East Prussia.
Kutno, scene of the big entrap-
ment of Polish forces in 1899, is
about 10 miles west of Warsaw on
the main Warsaw-Berlin railway.
North of the Vistula, Marshal
Rokossovsky's I'd White Russian
Army promised an early storming
of the southern flank of East Prus-
sia, with detachments only 13 miles
from the frontier at last report.
Here large group of Germans
was cut off from East Prussia by
tanks which cut the railway to
Mlawa, IS miles north of Warsaw
and 8 miles from the junkers prov
ince.
Northwest of Warsaw, Rokossov-
sky was moving rapidly westward
after storming the fortress of Mod
lin, in the direction of Plock and
Torun (Thorn), two big cities on
the Lower Vistula.
Rokossovsky's northernward drive
threatened the outfanking of the
Masurian Lakes in East Prussia
Northeast of the lakes, Berlin said
fierce fighting fared as Gen. Ivan
Cherniakhovsky's Sd White Russian
Army made numerous break through
attempts.
Reds Repulsed, Nazis Say.
The German communique said the
Russians were turned back along
the general line of Rominten and
Gumbinnen, % miles inside East
Prussia.
Berlin said that farther north
the Russians had advanced to the
upper reaches of the Inster River,
which is about miles north OF
fallen Schlossberg.
South of Budapest the Germans
claimed one success, declaring sew
eral Nazi columns had pushed
through the Russian front north o1
Lake Balaton and were still ad-
vancing to the east.
A Nazi-controlled Scandinavian
news agency broadcast said the "ex-
treme danger continues" and the
German retreat is "far from fin
ished." It said the NaI high COM
mand was mobilizing reserves ir
Central Germany and sending them
to the Silesian frontier.
A Berlin account early today sale
Russian forces were becoming en-.
tangled in East Silesian defense
lines" At the same time a German
military spokesman declared "at tn.
Reich frontiers the offensive vii
take on a different aspect" H,
added that in the Vistula River benz
the German disengaging move.
ments were going according to plan.
None of the enemy broadcasts
denied the terrific power Of the
Red Army assaults. One Nazi
home-front radio cried "the German
soldiers never have experienced
anything SO horrible as this on
slaught"