MIGHTY SMOKESCREEN

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 70, 23 March 1945, Page 5

MIGHTY SMOKESCREEN

Blanket On Northern End of The Western Front DAWN TO DUSK OBSCURITY Rec. 10.30 a.m. LONDON, March 22. The biggest, longest and thickest smokescreen of the war now blankets the northern end of the Western Front, says the British United Press correspondent with the Canadian First Army. The smokescreen begins along the west bank of the Waal River near Nijmegen and continues to the junction of the Waal River and the Rhine, then along the Rhine for a distance of 66 miles. Pioneers light up the smoke producers an hour before the first light and keep them going until an hour after dusk. The Associated Press correspondent says that authoritative officers have revealed that the Germans have been withdrawing S.S. and Gestapo troops from the front line for the last two months for the purpose of organising a last ditch stand in the interior of Germany. The S.S. and Gestapo troops usually forced the German soldiers to keep up the fight. . The large Allied bag of prisoners recently taken led to the investigations. which revealed their suddenwithdrawal.