PORT ARTHUR, TEXAS. SUNDAY, APRIL
15, 1945.
RUSSIANS
LAUNCH BIG
OFFENSIVE
Junction
With Yanks
Aim Of
Red Drive,
Germans
Assert
By
Richard Kasischke
LONDON, Sunday, April 1 5
(AP)
Panicky German broadcasts said
that a massive, swaying tank battle -was raging early today within 30 miles of
Berlin after two mighty Soviet armies opened "preparatory" offensive
operations Saturday for a linkup with American troops.
Nazi
Defenses Smashed
The battle raged after massed Prussian
forces broke through powerful Nazi fortifications in preliminary thrusts which.
Berlin said, indicated that the Red Army
had begun the grand-scale, long-planned
offensive, to engulf Berlin and end the war.
Late German broadcasts Indicated
that the major Soviet blow was about to fall along the Neisse river 85 miles
from Lt. Gen. Geo S. Patton's U. S. Third Army. One Soviet battle group was
said to be attacking after violent artillery fire to cover up heavier attacks, planned
to sweep south of Berlin and link up in the area of Dresden.
There was no confirmation from Moscow,
but dispatches reported a zero-hour atmosphere In the Soviet capital.
Americans In
Outskirts Of
City, Is Claim
First And Third
Army Tanks Bypass Leipzig
And Drive Within
85 Miles Of Russian Lines;
Simpson's Men
Again Span Elbe River
By
James M. Long
PARIS, Sunday, April 15 (AP). U.
S. First and Third
Army
tanks drove deep beyond besieged Leipzig and within
85
miles of the Russian lines Saturday while the German*
opened
up with nrtillery against the Ninth Army front le»i
than 45
miles west of Berlin.
(Editor's note: The Paris radio
said American Ninth- Army troops to the north already were in Berlin's
outskirts.
The Luxembourg radio said they
were 13 miles away. The Germans themselves said they were only 21 miles away as
of Friday. In London, newspapers expected their triumphal entry into the
rubbled capital to be announced at any hour.)
A German radio commentator today
described the Third Army drive, which had reached within seven miles of
Chemnitz, as "significant," and predicted It's speedy exploitation
for a linkup with Marshal Ivan S. Konev's First Ukrainian Army in Silesia.
Now
Front Line City'
The same commentator declared Berlin
now was "a front-line, city” and "may well reckon with
defense simultaneously against the western Allies and the Soviets."
important
War News
Is Hinted
By Alex
Singleton
LONDON, Sunday, Anril 15 (AP).—
The London Sunday Express
reported today that "news of major importance is
known to have reached the cabinet
ministry yesterday." And declared "the war may end literally at any
moment."
Victory
Weekend
Contributing to the wave of optimism
in London, the Sunday dispatch' carried a headline saying "this is the
victory weekend."
However, when a secretary to Prime
Minister Churchill's residence at 10 Downing, street was asked if there had
been an official state alert ho said: "No—thank
you."
No special preparations had been
made In official quarters in London for any startling announcements over the
weekend. Censors were not clamping down on any news generally known.
Many Britons got their cue that
something might happen from. Prime Minister Churchill's sudden cancellation of
plans to fly to Washington for the funeral of
Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Three
Rumors Cited
(The National Broadcasting company
said that rumors, in London, all without apparent foundation, were that
announcement was expected shortly after "either the
Allies had entered Berlin, the Allaied
and Russian armies had met, the Germans had surrendered on all three
things had happened.")
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