Current Events February 4, 1944;

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY FEBRUARY 4, 1944:

American Infantry, supported by tanks, drove into the northeastern part of Cassino late today and were reported fighting from h o u s e to h o u s e through the battered city tonight as another U S. column pounded toward the via Casilina southwest of the town, threatening to cut off the Nazi garrison.

Red armies on three fronts today drove Adolf Hitler's battered and retreating eastern forces to the

brink of disaster, with 10 divisions, from 125,000 to 150,000 Nazis, completely surrounded and a like

fate threatening an estimated 250,000 others.

 The Spanish cabinet, after a mecting with Gen. Francisco Franco, today issued a communique emphasizing that Spanish neutrality will be maintained and. that both Spaniards and foreigners will be made to respect it.



                         RENO. NEVADA, FRIDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 4, 1944


BOMBARDMENT
PAVES ENTRY
FOR AMERICANS
U. S. Barrages Shake
Countryside
For Miles
.ALLIED HEADQUARTERS,
Algiers, Fob. 3. (U.P.)—
American Infantry, supported by tanks, drove into the northeastern part of Cassino late today and were reported fighting from h o u s e to h o u s e through the battered city tonight as another U S. column pounded toward the via Casilina southwest of the town, threatening to cut off the Nazi garrison.
A dispatch from an advanced command post said the Americans made their entry Into Cassonp  u n d e r the cover of a thundering artillery bombardment which continued after dark in a spectacular night battle
Opening their attack in mid-afternoon with two crashing barrages that hhook the countryside for miles around and sent towers of smoke' and flame shooting up from Cassino, the Americans had battered into tho edges of the town by 5:15 p. m,, the front dispatch said.
An Allied communique said there had been "hard fighting" on the new Rome beachhead, with American
and British seaborne forces enlarging their foothold in the face of stiffening resistance and counterattacks
which were repulsed. Military commentators declined to go beyond this report.
                                                                  Suffer Setback
Front reports revealed that American forces had suffered a setback Sunday and Monday when they attempted to take Cisterna, 13 miles northeast of Ncttuno. Vanguards actually reached the Appian Way town but the Germans cut behind them, the dispatches revealed, and forced a withdrawal with losses.
 L a t e s t dispatches from the Rome front Indicated that fighting* had subsided as the Americans cleaned out tho G e r m a n s from farmhouses and silo pillboxes in front of Cisterna.

 125,000 NAZIS
CUT OFF; MORE
FACE LIKE FATE
Whole Ukraine Front
Totters as Reds
Surge Through
 LONDON, Feb. 3. (U.P)—
Red armies on three fronts today drove Adolf Hitler's battered and retreating eastern forces to the
brink of disaster, with 10 divisions, from 125,000 to 150,000 Nazis, completely surrounded and a like
fate threatening an estimated 250,000 others.
Marshal Joseph Stalin in an order of the day announced what may prove the greatest Soviet victory since Stalingrad, a smashing double break-through south of Kiev which trapped 10 of Field1 Marshal Fritz Erich von Mannstein's sorely needed divisions and tore wide open his defense of the entire Ukraine.
                                                               Last Rail Route
Mannstcin's whole Ukrainian front Is threatened, since the loss of 10 divisions might so weaken  his armies that he could not with stand Soviet pressure. The Russia victory places in imminent dango the rail junction of Zhmerinka and the last good rail route by which the Germans could evacuate the Ukraine. Loss of this line would make an estimated 250,000 Nazis dependent upon small lateral railways through Rumanian mountains, a route hardly practical for such large bodies of troops.




Hitler's Russian Armies
Face Greatest Disaster
125,00 NAZIS
CUT OFF; MORE
FACE LIKE FATE
Whole Ukraine Front
Totters as Reds
Surge Through
LONDON, Feb. 3. (U.P)—
Red armie.s on three fronts today drove Adolf Hitler's battered and retreating eastern forces to the brink of disaster, with 10 divisions, from 125,000 to 150,000 Nazis, completely surrounded and a like fate threatening an estimated 250,000 others.
Marshal Joseph Stalin in an order of the day announced what may prove the greatest Soviet vielory since Stalingrad, a smashing double break-through south of Kiev which trapped 10 of Field Marshal Fritz Erich von Mannstein's sorely needed divisions and tore wide open his defense of the entire Ukraine.
                                                             Last Rail Route
Mannstcin's whole Ukrainian front Is threatened, since the loss of 10 divisions might so weaken his armies that he could not with stand Soviet pressure. The Russia victory places in imminent danger, the rail junction of Zhmerinka an the last good rail route by which the Germans could evacuate the Ukraine. loss of this line would make an estimated 250,000 Nazis dependent upon small lateral railways through Rumanian  mountains, a route hardly practical for such large bodies of troops.




SPAIN INSISTS
ON NEUTRALITY

'Won't Give in to
  Outside Pressure'

MADRID. Feb. 3. (U.P)—
The Spanish cabinet, after a mecting with Gen. Francisco Franco, today issued a communique emphasizing that Spanish neutrality will be maintained and. that both Spaniards and foreigners will be made to respect it.

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