SCORCHED EARTH

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 92, 19 April 1945, Page 7

SCORCHED EARTH

GERMAN RETREAT POLICY

Rec. 12.15 p.m. LONDON,- April 18. The Germans are scorching the towns in the path of the great British armobred thrusts which tonight are threatening Hamburg from only 17 or 18 miles from the south and southeast, say correspondents at FieldMarshal Montgomery's headquarters. Only patchy resistance lies ahead of the 7th and llth Armoured Divisions, which are advancing oyer an increas-

ingly wide area of the Luneburg plain. The 7th Armoured Division thrust forward three or four miles and captured Kampen, 10 miles south of the Bremen-Hamburg autobahn. The llth Armoured Division, after advancing eight miles, is now on the outskirts of Luneburg and only eight miles from the Elbe River, but heavy resistance is expected in Luneburg itself. All the ancient part of the city of Magdeburg lying west of the Elbe River fell into the hands of the 9th Army today after flame-throwing tanks had burnt out the last fanatical members of the Hitler Youth from their rat-holes, reports a correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain. Rothishorn Island, which divides the Elbe opposite the city, is still in German hands. The enemy blew up the highway bridge across the river, but according to late reports the railway bridge is still intact. It is expected that it will be blown up at any \ moment. Magdeburg is nothing but a rubble heap. Not a single undamaged building is left standing. It is another ghastly monument to the devas- i tation of the Allied air power. As the Americans -fought their way through the streets, civilians came out of the cellars and rushed for water. The bombing had knocked out the electrical equipment operating the water supply, and the people were crazed with thirst. TOUGH FIGHT FOE NUREMBERG. The battle for Nuremberg is proving tough, says Reuters correspondent. Troops of the 7th Army entered the city last Monday night, but the defenders, who qxe believed to number between 5000 and 10,000, are fighting back stubbornly with heavy artillery, mortars, and bazookas.' -- The Americans penetrated Nuremberg at four different points, but the enemy opposition is still very fierce. German anti-aircraft guns on the perimeter of the city kept up intense fire. The 7th Army has announced the capture of its 250,000 th prisoner since the landings in south France. The German news agency says that the Nazi Party congress hall at Nuremberg is in flames. After nine attacks the Americans penetrated into' the grounds of the congress hall. American troops captured unr damaged Germany's largest synthetic rubber plant at Schkopau, south -of Halle, which until three days ago was turning out 6000 tons of synthetic rubber a months says the British United Press correspondent with the Ist Army. The plant, whicli covers four square miles and employed 15,000 workers, could be set in motion at a moment's notice if supplies of raw materials were made available. The director, whom the correspondent found hiding from the slave workers, said that the Allied air forces bombed the plant five times, but caused little damage. The Ruhr pocket so far has yielded 309,484 prisoners, more than twice the original * estimate. It is officially stated that 50,000 remain to' be rounded up. A French communique states that the Royan pocket north of the Gironde Estuary was completely cleared after the surrender of the German troops garrisoning the La Coubre fortifications.