REICH CORRIDOR

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

REICH CORRIDOR

CENTRAL GERMANY Huns Pinned In Pocket 120 Miles Long British Official Wireless Rec. 12.30 p.m. RUGBY, April 22. In Central Germany the enemy is now pinned in a corridor 120 miles long from north to south at its southern end, where the Russians are advancing towards the Dresden-Torgau-Wittenberg line. The Elbe corridor is 40 to 50 miles wide. In this sector Americans are up against strong defences from Chemnitz, along the Mulde River, to the Elbe at Dessau, but are still advancing north and north-east of Leipzig. At its northern or Berlin end. the central German corridor is 50 to 60 miles wide. In the ..middle of the corridor a large German pocket has been formed by the simultaneous Russian advances from the Oder. This pocket may shortly be cut off. British forces closing up on Hamburg to-day captured Buxtehude, about ten miles south-west, and under 50 miies from the mouth of the Elbe. Except for a few isolated pockets and strongpoints still in possession of the enemy northern front is clear of Germans. British troops control between ISO and 40 miles of the river front. Infantry mopping up west and south of the Lower Elbe, have cleared most of Gohrde Forest, east of Luneburg. They pushed a mile beyond Achim, seven miles southeast of Bremen. Near the • Dutch frontier Polish troops advanced seven miles north of Papanburg, towards Leer.