FANTASTIC SCENES IT FILL OF HANOVER

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 85, 11 April 1945, Page 5

FANTASTIC SCENES IT FILL OF HANOVER

PEOPLE LINE STREETS "Call To Arms" Posters Ignored N.Z. Press Association—Copyright Rec* 1.30 p.m. LONDON, April 10. How the Prussian city of Hanover was taken is told by a British United Press correspondent in a message from Hanover late to-night. He says thousands of Germans lined the streets as the American forces entered the city early this morning on captured German vehicles, but not a single white flag was seen. This was the result of the warning issued by the Gauleiter of Hanover a few days ago: "Whoever hoists the white flag will be- shot." The people ignored posters which had been plastered throughout the city saying: "The nation springs to arms." Even while tanks were exchanging shots this morning civilians nocked into the streets to watch. One soldier said: "It makes you feel silly, crouching around trying to get a shot at a sniper while civilians pedal past on bikes and women and children go along just watching." . Slave Workers Riot Starving Russian slave workers from railway yards and factories broke open food shops in Hanover when they were released by Ninth Army troops. German shopkeepers appealed frantically to the American troops but the Americans replied: "Just what you did in Poland, France and Greece," and the Russians went on scrambling into shopwindows to clutch great tins of biscuits. The Daily Express correspondent ■ says 200 American infantrymen with fewer than ten casualties took Hanover, with a present population of 250,000, also released 60,000 slave workers and 300 British prisoners. The Germans, in the Hanover area, have lost 1000 prisoners thus far, including three generals. The correspondent adds that the only undamaged building he saw in Hanover was the Tewn Hall. On Beyond Hanover After the entry into Hanover Allied troops pushed eastward on both sides of the city. The German news agency said that on the north of the city they reached a line between Hanover and Celle. The news agency also reported that General Dempsey's troops crossed the Weser near its confluence with the Aller, which is 10 miles north of Hoya. The Exchange Telegraph correspondent at Field-Marshal Mont- . gomery's headquarters says the " German defences north-west of Hanover show serious signs of cracking. The garrison of several hundred at Nienburg hoisted white flags.

The British United Press correspondent says crossing of the Weser at Hoya means that the British Seventh Armoured Division (the "Desert Rats") has begun the encirclement of Bremen. Field-Marshal Montgomery's latest armoured advances mean that the eastern side of the vast trap has nearly closed on 200,000 Germans in north-west Germany. American First Army troops in the past 24 hours have captured five more towns, including Northeim and Sieburg.