WAR'S MOST DRAMATIC CHASE NEAR CLIMAX

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 76, 31 March 1945, Page 5

WAR'S MOST DRAMATIC CHASE NEAR CLIMAX

TREMENDOUS MOVES

"Great Fold-Up With End Round The Corner " British Official Wireless Rec. 1 p.m. RUGBY, March 30. A correspondent with the Ninth Army east of the Rhine, says that beneath the cloud of secrecy nowcloaking the tremendous moves being made by our armies on the Western Front, the most dramatic chase of the war is nearing a climax. British and American armoured divisions, in an unparalleled, daring, breakaway race across the face of Germany, are to-night fast forging the last links in the gigantic trap which will snare the Germans in the greatest enemy pocket yet. Inside that pocket at the moment are parts of two German armies— the First Parachute and the newlycommitted Fifteenth—and. elements of the Third, and the Fifth Panzer Army. So fast are we moving that it seems highly unlikely that any battleworthy part of these huge forces will escape. Also inside the pocket is the Ruhr. The size of this fast-forming pocket is making everybody watching it shaping on operations maps gasp in wonderment. Trapped in Colossal Box "As I see" it," the correspondent continues, "when the -.Quickly narrowing gateway is shut tight the enemy and the Ruhr will be cut off. inside a colossal box with sides 80 miles long—a total area of 6400 square miles. "The British Second Army and the United States First and Ninth Armies are making this box. Formations of the Guards armoured forces are racing side by side with General Simpson's armoured forces. General Hodge has the bottom and the righthand side of the box. He has almost welded his half of the trap in an express advance of nearly 120 miles since the Third Armoured Division broke loose from Remagen bridgehead. . • : .

Guards Racing Well Ahead "General Simpson was last to get going. It was not until yesterday that his armour crawled out. By that time General Hodges had made over 100 miles in a movement to the east, then to the north, and up above the British Guards armour was also racing well ahead. The reason for the delay was that the 116 th Panzer Division which was rushed post-haste from Holland last Saturday, stiffly held off our infantry from forcing the opening for the even our armour had to join in and fight. The Panzers wilted and to-day one of General Simpson's armoured divisions is tearing east to link tfp with General H »Enwh r iiefother highly'dramatic events are taking place all along the 200-mile front from Emmerich down to the Third Army, south of Aschaf-: fenburg. Between the south-east front Ind the First Army and the north-east side of General Pattons Third Army, another large.enemy pocket is practically sealed. .This measures some 25 by 20 miles The correspondent eoncludes. "The whole Western Front is on the move and is moving at breakneck speed. It is no longer- a single army Picture. This is it—a great fold-up with the end of ,the war. around the corner." . .