BRITISH CLOSE IN ON BREMEN AND HAMBURG

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 95, 23 April 1945, Page 5

BRITISH CLOSE IN ON BREMEN AND HAMBURG

LOWER ELBE ADVANCE Panzer Counter-Attacks Repelled N.Z. Press Association —Copyright Rec. 12.30 p.m. LONDON, April 22. British infantry and tanks moving up are closing in on Bremen and Hamburg, cleaning up and diminishing the German rearguard forces west and south of the banks of the Lower Elbe, report agency correspondents at Field-Marshal Montgomery's headquarters. The British who entered the junction town of Rotenburg yesterday, repelled panzer grenadiers who counterattacked along the Bremen-Hamburg autobahn. Scots, south-east of Bremen, reached the village of Achim in a movement against Bremen. The Guards tanks, developing their rush between Bremen and Hamburg, stand outside Bremen on a 15 miles front. The British, south-east of Hamburg, control the Elbe for more than 30 miles, but they are doing a good deal of mopping up to clear such a strongpoint as Blechede. Patrols which pushed on between Zeven and Buxtehude, report very few Germans south-west of the Elbe. General Dempsey's armour south of Hamburg has been slowed up, while British tanks and infantry clear up German pockets between their spearheads and build up on the western bank of the Elbe, say correspondents at Field-Marshal Montgomery's Headquarters. Last week's sunshine has given place to cold, blustery weather and rainstorms, which doused the fires on Luneberg Heath. There were plenty of local engagements, particularly south-west cf Hamburg, where the Guards Armoured Division launched a right hook toward Zeven, which is strongly defended. British Second Army Headquarters received a message from a French colonel who is senior officer of the war prisoners' camp on Luneberg Heath which is still held by the Germans, stating that the prisoners are in a bad state. There are 16,000 sick in the camp, which is overcrowded as the result cf the recent arrival of 8000 political prisoners. The American Ninth Army, continuing the offensive on the northern flank of their front, in Magdeburg area, made gains of up to ten miles yesterday, says the British United Press correspondent. The infantry, mopping up close behind armoured units on th*e right flnnk, reached the Elbe en a new sector, extending the Ninth Army's hold, on the river north-west of V/ittenberge.