DAY AND NIGHT

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

DAY AND NIGHT

ALLIED AIR ASSAULT Depriving Enemy Of Power Of Movement N.Z. Press Association—Copyright Rec. 12.30 p.m. LONDON, March 22. The whole great back dcor to Berlin between the Ruhr Valley and Bremen has been put under Allied bomb and rocket fire to-day, as air forces have been switched from the captured Saar and the virtually cleared Palatinate area to prepare for the forthcoming onslaught of which General Eisenhower warned the Reich, says the Associated Press correspondent at Supreme Headquarters. The day and night Allied air blows against the Ruhr amount to a slow and relentless crippling of the whole of north-west Germany. The huge area of rolling plain east of the Rhine, against which the Allied forces have been solidly encamped for weeks, is being systematically deprived of the power of movement, which constitutes ability to resist a modern full-scale onslaught. To-day's attacks followed two raids against Berlin by Mosquitoes, one of which is officially stated to have been carried out by the largest force of these bombers yet sent against Berlin. The Press Association's aviation correspondent says that over 100 Mosquitoes took part. Jubilant airmen described the raid as the "best yet." The bombs they dropped brought the total taken to Berlin by Mosquitoes to about 2000 tons in 30 successive nights. Mosquitoes during the night also bombed 10 marshalling yards north of the Ruhr. The unrelenting Allied air attack on the Germans' last escape routes from the Palatinate yesterday caused a large German column to halt, wave white flags and await capture by the Seventh Army, reports Reuters correspondent at Supreme Headquarters. The Germans west of the Rhine are now herded into a 300square mile triangle. The pocket was originally 5000 square miles. The German positions on the east side of the Siegfried Line are holding fairly strongly in a desperate effort to keep open the last avenues for flight. The Seventh Army yesterday took 6000 prisoners. The provision of transport for the mounting numbers of German prisoners is becoming a problem.