Late War News ADVANCE ALMOST UNCHECKED

Dominion, Volume 38, Issue 138, 8 March 1945, Page 8

Late War News ADVANCE ALMOST UNCHECKED

Southern Rhine Push DERELICT ENEMY VEHICLES

(By Telegraph.—Brees Assn. —Copyright.) (Received March 8, 1.45 a.m.)

LONDON, March 7.

The United States Third Army continuing its attack is making a rapid advance to the Rhine. Correspondentsat Allied supreme headquarters say the advance has been virtually unchecked. An armoured division was last reported 15 miles from the Rhine and still pushing on. The roads are lined with captured and destroyed German equipment. Other Third Army forces have gained a maximum of two and a half miles in a 35 mile front, capturing five towns and entering one. General Patton’s 32 mile advance overwhelmed and surprised the enemy, report correspondents with the Third Ar vniage after village fell as the tanks roared on. One unit alone captured 200 motor vehicles, and three artillery batteries and knocked out three liger tanks in the first 12 hours. Reuter’s correspondent on the bwiss frontier re-ports that thousands of refugees from Germany’s western provinces are streaming into the Lake Constance area. „ Battle For Bonn. United States first army infantry after a three mile dash entered Alfter, three miles west of Bonn. Fighting continues in Alfter. The Germans are battling determinedly to hold on to Bonn, if only temporarily, in order to retain use of the bridge over the Rhine for evacuaCanadian and Ninth Army troops are impressing the shrinking German Rhine bridgehead as British planes and guns poured down high-explosive all night on the fleeing Germany army. A report iroin the frontline correspondent says the bridge head is only nine miles long and six and a half miles deep. Confusion in the Wesel bottleneck is increasing the Germans speeding up the evacuation by bulges and ferries. Xanten, the northern anchor of the Germans contracting bridgehead, has become the foeal point of the battle. The Canadians are shelling the town and ferries from the north and west, but are making only slow progress in face of fierce enemy resistance.