ACROSS THE ERFT

Evening Star, Issue 25422, 1 March 1945, Page 5

ACROSS THE ERFT

COLOGNE SIX AND A-HALF MIIESJWAY ALLIES CONTROL WHOLE SITUATION NINTH ARMY " BLACKHJUT " CONTINUES (Roc. 1 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 28. Americans of the First Army have established two bridgeheads across the Erft River, bringing .them within 6| miles of Cologne. The Erft, which the Americans have reached on a wide front, is the last water barrier before the city. Another armoured spearhead, driving along the Duren-Cologne road, reached a point a mile front Modrath, which is on the east ' 'bank of" the' Erft," directly opposite Cologne. First Army troops - captured one bridge over the Erft intact. Crossings were made in an area where ths river is full of - canals.

Good progress has been made on the • Canadian First Anny Ifront to the north and by the American Third Army to the south. Third Army tanks, swinging northward from east of Saarburg, gained a further 3£ miles, bring them 5J miles from Trier, says Reuter's correspondent. The Americans cleared seven more towns along _ a 35mile front. Street fighting is going on in Bitburg. The correspondent says Trier is facing a double threat. American tanks are to-day attacking the village of Pellingen, five miles south of Trier, while infantry have pushed to , a point 7$ miles north-east of the city. The Americans in the Saarburg sector are encountering very extensive minefields. Cavalry units crossed the Pruni River north-west of Bitburg, and entered Waxweiler, midway between Bitburg and Prum. The Germans on the Canadian First Army's front are withdrawing in the area between Goch and the Maas, says the Exchange Telegraph. Where our infantry and armour penetrated the enemy's defence line there is also heavy fighting south-east and south of Udem. The Canadians cleared Kalkar, and now hold 30 miles of the Rhine bank from Millengen to Hoppernel. The Ninth Army took 4,000 prisoners vesterday. Since crossing the Roer the , First Army has taken 60 towns and Tillages. GERMANS ADMIT DETERIORATION.

The Ninth Army, still surging forward on all sectors towards the Rhine, captured over a dozen towns to-day, say correspondents at FieldMarshal Montgomery's headquarters. The American positions still eannot be named owing to the security blackout, but a German News Agency correspondent, admitting that the west front situation was . much worse, announced that the Allies had reached the southern outskirts of Rehydt, Goebbels's birthplace. First Army forces, after forcing a new crossing of the Erft IRiver, are now fighting inside Modrath, which a staff officer described as " the outer defences of Cologne," six an da-half miles away. The Germans are throwing in their dwindling armoured forces on the Ninth Army's-front in groups of eight to 10 tanks, says the British United Press correspondent with the Ninth Army. Tanks are providing the backbone of the enemy resistance. German infantry now includes large numbers of members of the Volkssturm, engineer battalions, and fortress battalions. The Ninth Army had taken prisoner another 1,500 men by_ early afternoon. The Germans are trying desperately to form battle groups in an effort to stem the Allied advance, but the Americans are apparently by-passing such centres of resistance, mov,ing forward with superior armoured forces through wide gaps which the Germans' have been forced to leave in their positions, which no longer resemble anything like a line. . , The First Army's Modrath crossing was made after the Germans blew up a bridge in face of the American advance, says the British United Press correspondent. The Germans here are putting up the stiffest defence with artillery, mortars, and small-arms fire. COLOGNE'S SAFEGUARD. A high American staff officer taid: " The German defence of Cologne rests on the Erft Canal and the rough terrain ridge behind it. • If we take this sector we shall command Cologne." First Army units found over 5,000 civilians, mostly Polish' and Ukraine

slave labourers, in Blatzheim and Perpen on the road from Duren. The Germans presumably had no time to evacuate them. The First Army has captured over 100 towns and villages since it started' its offensive five days ago. Everything points to the fact that the Ninth Army may have reached the outskirts of Munchengladbach, if they are not even further ahead in the direction of Dusseldorf, says Reuter's Shaef correspondent. The AfTied commands believe many Uerman formations do not know how far the Allied forces have advanced or the dispositions of our forces. This theory is supported by numerous incidents. Fifteen officers and 100 men in a replacement pool were captured in one place without a struggle. They are described as being "apparently confused as to the military situation." Ninth Army spearheads in another sector pounced on a coluir.u of Germans who were marching ?o help the defence of a town which had been in American hands for some hours.