ELBE BRIDGEHEAD

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 91, 18 April 1945, Page 6

ELBE BRIDGEHEAD

WILL DECIDE BATTLE

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) i Rec. 1.15 p.m. LONDON, April 17. The Americans fighting in the Elbe bridgehead now have what they needY to decide the battle—air cover. The 'Daily Express" correspondent at ! Supreme Headquarters said today that I every 20 minutes since 11 a.m. twinengined, planes have been laying down a carpet of bombs on the Germans around the bridgehead.

A total of 400 bombers is operating. Fighter-bombers are also out in swarms. German concentrations, from the. Elbe to points 10 miles south-west of Berlin, were strafed. The machines met no flak and no enemy planes. An American spearhead has reached the eastern suburban outskirts of Leipzig, says Reuters correspondent with the Ist. Army. Tonjght forces of Montgomery's three-pronged drive towards the Elbe aCre/wifhin striking distance of Luneberg, the last big town, before Ham-burg,-which is 25 miles away, says the British United Press correspondent at Montgomery's headquarters. ' The German defence before the Elbe in this area is at last beginning to crack. Ulzen, 50 miles south-east of Hamburg, has been outflanked on both sides, while the open Luneberg heath country offers possibilities for a major ! advance within the next 24 hours, and the whole Allied swing towards the Elbe positions appears to be going well. The thrust north by the 7th Division brought it to the outskirts of Schneverdingen after it had travelled half-way between the Allerand the Elbe in 36 hours. NEARING RIVER. The 11th Armoured Division, after crossing the Bremen-Ulzen railway, has pushed forward eight miles and is now under 15 miles from the Elbe. So far there appears to be little opposition between it and the river.

Large shipping convoys, including several 1000-tonners, hugged the fringes