Preparation

Like the attack upon Germany from the east and the west, the attack from the south was a supply problem. This week the Russians were straightening it out.

The Russian army group fighting in Hungary had been stalled some 50 miles from Budapest for several weeks. Last week General Ivan Y. Petrov's Fourth Ukrainian army group fighting southward from Czechoslovakia eased the supply problem. A railroad and a road pass across the Carpathians were taken, and thus southern Poland and Hungary were linked through Transylvania. Five other Carpathian passes were also captured. Now Petrov needed only to meet roving Cossack cavalry and tanks from eastern Hungary to complete additional links.

To the south, Russians and Yugoslav Partisans passed a historic milestone. Battle-torn Belgrade, capital of Yugoslavia, was captured after a week of struggle, three and a half years after the Germans had taken it.

Through Yugoslavia, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, the Russians were forming their lines, building up supply, preparing for the push that would take them to Austria and Germany's south. The Nazis' weakest front was going to feel some pounding.

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