First 140 Miles Off

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 84, 10 April 1945, Page 5

First 140 Miles Off

RESISTANCE STIFFENS IN N.W. GERMANY N.Z.P.A.—Copyright—Rec. noon LONDON, April 9. The American First, Third and Ninth Armies are now pushing toward Berlin in one closely knit force, front line correspondents to-night. Prisoners continue to pour in and about 50,000 have been captured by these three armies alone in the past 24 hours. First Army troops to-day drove into Duderstadt, which is approximately 140 miles from Berlin, thus taking a slight lead oyer the Third Army in the race to Berlin. First Army infantry, moving against only scattered groups of disorganised Germans, went through Gottingen to take Duderstadt, while other fast-moving forces north-east of Gottingen pushed 18 miles to Einbeck, where a German major-general came out to surrender without a fight. Tarks south of Einbeck rolled 11 miles to the west of Northeim, where they met fierce anti-tank fire from roadblocks. Farther south still Sherman tanks were held up in a fight with Tiger tanks manned by German "dead end kids." The First Army yesterday crossed the Leiner River, north-east of Kassel, on an 11-mile front. South of Gottinger British Sixth Airborne Division troops to-day established a bridgehead east of. the Leiner River to a depth of more than 2000 yards. Two bridges over the river were captured intact.

Berlin radio stated that American forces made further advances in the Hanover area as far as the north-western slopes of the Hartz Mountains. Their tanks are developing a twin thrust, one column driving direct for Hanover and the other for the Hermann Goering works near Salzgitter and Goslar, .

The Third Army to-day consolidated its positions and checked German attempts to start counter-attacks 10 miles north-west of Muhlhausen. Infantry advanced up to four m:les and reached points four miles north-east and 22 miles south of Gotha and four miles north-east of Suhl. Columns of. American vehicles are now moving to the front over the Frankfurt-Berlin autobahn. Up in north-western Germany, after a day of spectacular drives on practically every sector of the British front, there is evidence now that German resistance is stiffening and that the enemy is trying to form some semblance of a line. Soft spots have gone hard, but there is little co-ordination about the enemy s flabby defensive tr ° nt The enemy is holding out at Wierden, three nules west of Almelo, nearly as stubbornly as at Zutfen. Armoured units from Zutfen are moving up slowly towards Deventer. There, Canadian armoured patrols are 10 miles from the Zuider Zee. The Germans are manning the line of the Yssel River from Zwolle south to Deventer and Arnhem. The Germans blew up dykes and flooded an area of 20 square miles between Zwolle and Meppen. Northern Holland west of the Yssel is isolated except for 25 miles of causeway across the northern end of the Zuider Zee. Troops of the Ninth Army's 84th Division are to-night within four miles of Hanover, which is now invested from three sides, says Reuters correspondent in a later message from Supreme Headquarters. Other Ninth Army troops, after crossing the Leine Kiver north of Hildesheim, struck east to within 20 miles of Brunswick. The 95th Division gained between eight and 10 miles south of Hamm. It is officially estimated that the Germans have lost 500,000 men in killed, wounded and captured in the West in the past ten days, or a daily average of 50,000, says the Associated Press correspondent at Twelfth Army Group Headquarters. About ninetenths of the total were taken prisoner. The four American armies under General Bradley captured about 37,600 yesterday. Th Ruhr pocket has already yielded 16,340. . "Cities and towns are only of secondary importance in the great West Front operation," says the New York Times correspondent at Supreme Headquarters, Drew Middleton. &senhowever's primary objective is the encirclement and of the German Army. General Eisenhower has e^^ o ° n w h at policy that, granted adequate supplies, he should destroy wh left of the German forces in the West before June 1. |