Siege Of Cologne Begun

Evening Star, Issue 25426, 6 March 1945, Page 5

Siege Of Cologne Begun

Americans Capture Two Suburbs German Rhine Bridgehead Shrinking Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright I (Rec. - noon.)- LONDON, March 5. * American armour and infantry blasted a way into Cologne ' to-day, and are riow fighting towards the heart of the city. The Associated Press correspondent with the hirst Army says a powerful attack against Germany’s fourth city was launched at 4 a.m., and at 7.10 a.m. Third Armoured Division columns, striking from the north, passed the city boundary post at the edge of the suburb of Bochelmuend. Cologne lies under a pall of black smoke. The thunder of the battle rolls across the city, increasing in fury. The Americans, through the smoke from many fires and explosions, can see the cathedral’s spires. Orders have been issued not to fire against the cathedral. Armour is supporting the infantry in house-to-house fighting. .The artillery is firing against enemy strongpoints. Resistance was comparatively light on the extreme fringes of the city.. Most of the defenders have gone deeper into the centre, leaving. anti-tank guns and flak units to guard the approaches. The Americans went in to clean out factories and houses. Tanks opened fire at point-blank range against houses turned into strongpoints/ There was no direct news from Cologne to late to-night from front-line correspondents, but Reuter’s correspondent at Shaef, reporting that elements of the First Army have reached the city limits after capturing the suburbs of Junkersdorf and Bickendorf, said the siege of this dead city has now begun. He added that .the Germans’ defence may be more in the nature of a rearguard action to cover their withdrawal over the Rhine than an actual attempt to save what are now only acres of shattered masonry, twisted girders, and rows of burnt-out homes and buildings. The German News Agency said the Americans and Germans to-night were locked in a major battle on the west ,bank of the Rhine almost midway between Cologne and Dusseldorf. The battle had been raging for two hours. The British Second Army was poised in the north for a smash across the Rhine, probably between Emmerich and Wesel. Reuter’s correspondent at Field-Marshal Montgomery’s headquarters says in 24 hours of hard fighting General Crerar’s British and Canadian troops and General Simpson’s American forces have nearly halved the last German bridgehead west of the Rhine. Steady gains to-night were pressing the Germans back to positions north of the threatened Rhineberg railway a short distance west of Xanten. Increased pressure is being exerted around the German perimeter. One .significant change occurred in the German method of resistance on the Canadian front to-day. A Canadian officer described it as “ self-propelled gun resistance as distinct from infantry fighting. , .