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GERMAN DEFENCES
CRUMBLING
Fierce Battle
for Warsaw
BALTIC FRONT
CRACKING
"The Age" Special Correspondent and A. A. P.
v LONDON, August 2.
A tremendous battle is going on in
the suburbs of Warsaw, on the cast
bank of the Vistula, where Russian
tfuns and bombers arc diving sunnort
to tanks as tlicy edge tlicir way for
ward through the slowly crumbling
German defences.
German reinforcements are arriving from
the north to take the shock of the Red Army's
attacks on the borders of East Prussia.
A new threat to Warsaw was revealed in
to-day's despatches from Moscow which stated
that Russian forces have reached the river Bug
on a broad front.
Reuter's correspondent in Moscow reports
that the Baltic front to-day is beginning to
crack and crumble 'alh round the . encircled;
Germans and that the fall of Riga 'may release
a landslide, which/will send all the: remaining
Germans in this sector scurrying for ports.-
The correspondent points out
that the enemy is in a dilemma,
as he is unable to attempt a
general withdrawal from his pre
sent long and deeply Indented
line. Lack of sufficient forces
for this operation are forcing him
to struggle on under the threat
of a sudden and perhaps disas
trous Red Army break-through.
The National Broadcasting
Company's representative in
Moscow says there is every in-
'dication that the Soviet Baltic,
fleet is already deploying' for
action in its first grand-scale
operation since the outbreak of
war. He goes on:— : .
"The odds, are all against a
Baltic Dunkirk. This is the time
and, place for the BeUir flnvt to
; ;:>cp-Ut; ti-s 'I'.i,
,ns oj.ra'if. .. n' ' 1
ic- ». .. i -
| iir.ivA .the. LUflwaixiS .t'roui t
I sklas;: T'.K! aah S« sc-vieti-Alr Fores
on 'laud'; enr:
fleet's air arm. have scored heav
ily in operations during the last
few. days, averaging more than
50Q 'sorties dally." < :
Latest Russian captures . include
Tukums, ' district centre in the
Latvian Republic, 10 miles from
the Gulf of Riga. This represents
an advance of.:31. miles from- Jel-
gava in 24 hours, and means that
the Red Army had now, cut all
road' and rail, communications be
tween the Baltic , and East Prus
sia'.
The biggest' encirclement disas
ter since Stalingrad now. faces the
German forces in Estonia and
northern Latvia, where they are;
virtually trapped with their backs
to the sea, :
The Russians have also, cap
tured Dydvizhe, 8 .miles ; south
east of , the East Prussian border
town of Schirwindt.
The capture of Kaunas will re
lease more men and machines to
swell the big , Red Army force
which threatens to sweep over the
East Prussian' frontier up to the
Baltic. Kaunas is operationally
and politically an important cen
tre covering the approaches to
East Prussia.
More than 8000 Germans were
killed and- 1200 taken prisoner
in the fighting for Kaunas.
Thirty-five - enemy tanks and: 75
guns were destroyed, and 17
tanks arid 76 guns were cap-:
tured. '
The best 'German units all
along the line are, falling to stem
the Russian advance except south
west of Bialystok, where they
made some effective resistance,
but this is not helping the Ger
mans before Warsaw, where a
solid; Russian" front has now been
forriied. Russians fighting in
Praga, a suburb of Warsaw, can
hear the sound of explosions
across the Vistula River as Ger
man '.demolition squads; put the
city through its final agony.
All German "officials , and, their
families have left Warsaw, and
only the Gestapo- arid military re
main, according to a report re-
ceived by the Polish Government
in London. 1
Dietmar's Wail
The Berlin Radio commentator
(General Dietmar) said last night
that "the flood approaches War
saw," but the German News
Agency's correspondent, von
Hammer, claimed that the. Ger
mans had eliminated six or seven
Russian . bridgeheads ' on the west
bank of the Vistula.
Reuter says Russian guns are
shelling the approaches,1 roads
and' forest hide-outs as General
Chernyakowskyls tanks advance
over the last remaining .miles to
East Prussia.
, Diettriar also said:— "The Ger-
; i'-i, Lrr-.r-c!, i<E :'iCi y
i ! " op i v i s i"1 1 nil
f.l. ' 1 «.:
nications in East Prussia.
"How did all this come about ?
A discrepancy in : numbers is ' re
sponsible for our reverses. This
cannot be argued away. There
was Russian . superiority, and it
has become iriore pronounced
since the British and Americans
set foot on the . Continent. So
far we have not taken this suffi
ciently into account, otherwise
there would have been no. need
for the Fuhrer's' appeal arid Goeb-
bels's new appointment. ..
"Nothing' really perfect will be
achieved from: such makeshift
measures, but .it. is something on
which .we can Tay our hands at
once;, .which is, -all that matters
at this time."
The Russians south of Rrzemysl
are pushing a long spearhead into
the Carpathians, threatening to
cut off . the rpad. and rail junction
of Sambor, the oil centre of
Drohobycz,, and, the rail Junction
of Stryj, all of which are 'with
in 30 or 40 miles of Czecho
slovakia's mountain border.
All along' the front the Rus
sians are now putting into effect
the strategy which, according to
the "Red Star," Marshal Stalin
evolved after an ainalysis of the
trends of warfare in the first and
second world wars. Speed and
mobility are the essential basis
of this technique, which involves
the use of all kinds of cavalry
"from ' Cossacks to motor-cycle
tommy gunners."
Lieutenant - General Franke,
commander of the 73rd' German
Infantry Divislori, and his staff
have been captured. .
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