EVENTS IN MINSK

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 239, 6 July 1944, Page 5

EVENTS IN MINSK

Civilians Aided Attack (British Official Wireless and Press Assn.) RUGBY, July 4. Hit by the Soviet blitzkrieg, Germau troops were cleared from Minsk proper yesterday afternoon except small isolated groups which are hiding in houses and. arc being mopped up or surrendering, says a Moscow message.

The Germans had made a stand six miles before Minsk with an infantry division, tanks and artillery. The Germans fled from tbeir posts, losing some hundreds killed. ’ «•

One group of Russian tanks entered Minsk by a bridge which partisans had prevented the Germans from destroying. The troops occupying Nlinslc were greeted iu many places by armed Soviet civilians. Men and women were patrolling the streets and rounding up prisoners.

Au armed uprising of citizens in the city under local leaders whose names are still unknown was skilfully co-ordinated to burst out openly on the eve of the Red Army’s storming of the city. Some of them seized Germau stores, rifles and equipment, and then guarded other stores which the fleeing Germans were attempting to destroy. Large booty was captured in Minsk, including a number of trains fully laden with war material. The city suffered terribly. The only undamaged houses are in the suburbs.

Empty land, fenced round with barbed wire, is all that is left of Jewish quarters, the inhabitants of which bad been murdered by the Germans.