NEARER BERLIN

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 65, Issue 154, 12 April 1945, Page 5

NEARER BERLIN

ONLY 70 MILES DISTANT. AMERICAN NINTH ARMY MOVING. ■ t*. ESSEN AND. BRUNSWICK FALLS. (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright.) (Rec. 11.45 a.m.) LONDON, April 11. Spearheads of General Simpson’s (Ninth) Army are to-night 70 miles from Berlin, his second armoured division having reached the Elbe River at Magdeburg. Earlier to-day forces of the 9th. Army entered Brunswick, where it is meeting stubborn resistance. American infantry attacking the city called on it to surrender late yesterday and the battle began when it rejected the German commander’s plea for a 24hour truce so he could withdraw his troops.

Back in the Ruhr pocket Essen has been captured. Civilians milling through the streets of Essen jubilantly greeted the American air-borne troops attached to the 9th Army who captured the second largest German city that had so far fallen into the Allies’ hands. They threw their arms around the troops and offered food, wines and other delicacies. The Americans Advanced through the streets lined with white flags, against very slight resistance, and quickly rounded up isolated groups of German troops. Air-borne troops found many streets blocked with overturned tramcars. They described. the boulevards and parks as a shambles, but white flags fluttered from blasted windows of what few buildings were still standing. The 9th Army’s 35th Division walked unopposed into Geleenkirchen. The Germans greeted them with large signs of “welcome.’’ Volunteers and civilians are busily engaged building bridges across the Ruhr River for the Americans.

Resistance in the Dortmund area also began to break to-day as the Americans moved into the town.