GAINS IN SAAR AREA

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 March 1945, Page 5

GAINS IN SAAR AREA

SAARBRUECKEN & ZWEIBRUECKEN

GERMAN DEFENCES TURNED

ADVANCES ON RHINE FRONT

LONDON, March 21. To-day’s communique from Allied Supreme Headquaters stated: —Swift Allied advances have almost completely disorganised the enemy resistance west of the Rhine. To the south of the Moselle River we have reached the Rhine at several places. We have reached the vicinity of Mainz and Bodenheim. We. have, captured Worms. Our forces over-ran numerous towns, including Alzey (13 miles south-east of Kreuznach), and Niederhausen, Saint Alban and Rockenhausen (eight, 12 and 15 miles respectively south of Krelznach). Our elements advancing from the north and west have contacted 12 miles west of Kaiserlautern. Our armoured units and infantry have- entered Kauserlautern, which initially was by-passed by our armoured spear--I*l Gcids Our infantry have cleared Roden, Fraulautern, and Endsdorf, which are one mile north-east to south-east of Saarlautern. They have advanced eastward to a point ten miles West of Neunkirchen. Our units crossed the Saar River and rapidly advanced. They captured Saarbrucken, Ottweiler, Furth, and Zweibrucken. We are through the Siegfried Line in the Zweibrucken area on a wide front. The enemy resistance is disorganised at some points. Progress has been slower in the rugged Hardt Mountain-' area. We have captured Kapsweyer, five miles east of Wissembourg. The Remagen bridgehead has been expanded to a length of 22> miles, and the depth is eight miles. We have cleared Oberkassel. W-e entered outskirts of Beuel. We have reached Solzlar and Steildorf against light resistance. We have captured Euaenback, and a nearby airfield, six miles north-east of Honnef. The enemy has directed heavy artillery and mortar fire against the centre of the bndgehead. His resistance further south has been lighter. We gained 4000 yards, and reached the vicinity of Leutesdorf, one mile north-west of Ander- * -nach. . , The Allied forces in the West on Monday took 13,873 prisoners.

LUDWIGSHAVEN NEXT.

LONDON, March 21.

Troops of the 7th Army have captured Saarbruecken and Zweibruecken, says Reuter’s correspondent with the 7th Army. The Americans crossed the Saar at two places yesterday. One crossing was made ’just west of Malstatt, which is a western suburb of Saarbruecken, and the other near Colkingen, west oi Saarbruecken. The Germans now hold only 45 miles of the west bank of the Rhine, from Worms southward to Lauterbourg, which is on the west bank opposite Karlsruhe. It is officially reported that the 6th Armoured Division of the 7th Army linked up with the 26th Infantry Division of the 3rd Army on Tuesday, 12 miles west of Kaiserslautern. The link-up of the 3rd and 7th Armies means that the Siegfried Line in this sector has been breached on a wide front,” says a National Broadcasting Company correspondent at General Omar Bradley’s Headquarters. The German defence line has now been turned completely. Only a suicide stand, surrender, or a hasty retreat remains for the estimated 40,000 or 50,000 Germans still left west of the Rhine.” , . American tanks are closing in on Ludwigshaven and are reported to be only six miles away. The Germans have been flung out of twothirds of Mainz.

FURTHER CAPTURES

LONDON, March 21.

United States First Army troops sweeping on alter dark on Wednesday night gained three thousand yards and captured Beuel and Geislar, two miles north of Beuel, and one mile east of the Rhine. An “Exchange Telegraph Agency correspondent said: Americans were well under one thousand yards from the Seig River, pursuing fleeing enemy forces, and it is almost certain they have now reached the river. There has been a noticeable lessening of resistance around the bridgehead. Other towns over-run were Pufzchen (two miles east of Beuel), Hangelar (four miles north-east oi Beuel and halfway along the BonnSieburg highway). The bridgehead is now twenty-five miles long. The German News Agency stated: The American Fifteenth Army has launched a big new offensive northward of the jßemagdn bridgehead. General Gerow is determined to burst the German ring and develop a far-flung battle movement.

REM AGEN . LONDON, March 21. Front line correspondents report that the Americans east of the Rhine, pressing northward from the Remagen bridgehead, have reached the outskirts of Beuel, which is one of the suburbs of Bonn, though on the east bank. The Americans are now fighting in Holzlar, about three miles north-west of Stieldorf. An advance was also made at the. southern end of the bridgehead, where two small places close together, one and a halt miles north of Andernach, were 4- <l| »■ Q I*l ‘ “Elements of the Ist Army in the Remagen bridgehead have driven northward some 3000 yards and are now fighting in Stieldori, about four and a half miles east of Bonn, which is on the Rhine’s west bank, said Reuter’s correspondent with the Ist Army. He added that the Remagen bridgehead was now 24 river-line lon°' ' “American Ist Army troops, after a series of attacks on Monday night, drove two miles and a half east of the Cologne-Frankfurt autobahn, capturing nine villages and a lawe Luftwaffe airfield at Eudenbach, said a front-line correspondent v lerday. “The capture of the an Held, which is seven miles east oi Komgsv’inter. gives Lieutenant-General Hodges control of two landing fields east'of the Rhine, one of winch is large enough to handle transports and is beyond enemy artillery range. The Americans made small .gams along the bridgehead line against stubborn enemy opposition, including fire from rocket artillery and self-propelled guns. Infantrymen thrusting north •extended the length of the bridgehead to a few hundred yards shoit of 20 miles.’’

CROSSING SIEG RIVER

(Rec. noon) LONDON, March 21. Sweeping northward through weak German resistance, American troops in the Remagen bridgehead have reached the Sieg River on a four-mile front from the Rhine to NiederpLis, five miles north-east of. Bonn, says a corresnondent with the Ist Army. The 78th Division, which achieved this gain in a three and a-half mile advance on a seven-mile tro. n h is now on the outskirts of Sieburg, which is under P o, nt-blank fire from American guns. The 78th Division cantured at least, seven towns and villages. The Germans apparently fave un hope of holding this attack and pulled back behind the Sieg River, but they three times unsuccessfully counter-attacked in an effort .to recapture Eudenbach airfield.

Correspondents at Supreme Headquarters say that the country northEast of Bonn is much flatter than opposite Remagen and will probably afford the Ist Army forces a good jumping- off place for a drive into the heart of Germany. The Sieg River is a fairly narrow stream and should not present much difficulty to troops who have already crossed wider and more heavily defended rivers.

FEW GERMANS ESCAPE. AMERICAN ARMIES JOIN.

(Rec. 10 a.m.) LONDON, March 21. United States forces have reached Ludwigshafen. It was earlier reported by Agency correspondents with the 3rd Army that a United States armoured formation had driven 14 miles eastward to within six miles of Ludwigshafen and Mannheim. Elements of one infantry. division in an 11-mile advance reached a point seven miles northwest of Ludwigshafen. The 3rd Army is reported to be driving on unchecked and only two enemy pockets remain behind the Americans, one of which is south-east of Kirn. It was officially stated that both could be considered as written off. The 3rd Army controls the Rhine on its front except for narrow areas between Mainz and Bingen and between Mainz and Ludwigshafen, where resistance is evaporating. , Reuter’s correspondent says it is believed that not many of the 80,000 Germans originally trapped between •the Saar and the Rhine succeeded in escaping. The 3rd Army yesterday captured 14,000 prisoners, bringing their total for the past two days to 35,000. A slave labour camp 10 miles south-west of St. Wendel was overrun in the latest advance and 300 Russians, Poles and French were liberated. , The United States 3rd and 7th Armies have made a second junction at Ottweiler. Seventh Army.troops, after fighting through the Siegfried Line forts, launched a three-pronged assault, enveloping Homburg, near Reports from SHAEF say that the Siegfried Line west of Zweibrucken collapsed with the capture of Saarbrucken, Volkingen and Zweibrucken. The Germans,. after the armoured break-through in the Saarbourg and Zweibrucken sectors, set fire to what was left of their heavy ammunition and fell back in retreat. It was armoured units ol this /tn Army formation which, surging through the break in the Siegfried Line, linked up with the 3rd Army westward of .Kaiserlautern. The capture of Worms and the entry to Mainz have seriously restricted what remains of the German escape routes. The Associated Press correspondent with the 3rd Army reports that Kaiserlautern, with a peace-time population of 60,000, fell to 2a Americans. It had long been considered a town hard to take, but the swift onrush of the American armour stirred such BEWILDERMENT AND TERROR in the hearts of the defenders that a small group of Americans took it without opposition. Anyone doubting the effectiveness of the Thunderbolt and Mustang attacks on the fleeing German columns should see the havoc strewn along the route over which the 10th Armoured Division stabbed south-east-wards to Kaiserlautern, says the Associated Press correspondent with the 10th Armoured Division. Dead Germans, bloated horses, burnt-out vehicles, and charred carts, all headed eastward, line both sides of the road for 50 miles. The scene is worse than that around Bastogne after the siege was broken. Reuter’s correspondent at SHAEF declared that the continued attacks against German factories, communications and oil refineries were at last paying tremendous victory dividends. The German lack of mobility was one of the greatest causes of their crushing defeat in the Saar-Moselle triangle. They were unable to move men or guns fast enough to cope with the Allied thrusts in the swiftmoving battle. Gas-generating vehicles were not powerful enough, and horse-drawn vehicles were too slow. The vehicles had no petrol, the horses were without fodder, the gunners were severely rationed, and for want of ammunition whole field batteries were abandoned intact. A mass exodus eastward of refugees from Frankfurt, Mannheim and Ludwigshafen is reported by the Luxemburg radio. Other reports state that refugees are also moving out of the northern areas. The Luxemburg radio is sending out a succession of messages to the people, some of the messages in General Eisenhower’s name, urging inhabitants and foreign workers to move out immediately before greater destruction descends on them. Other messages to workers appeal to them to keep workshops intact and not allow them to be destroyed. The workers are told: “If your workshops are saved you won’t be badly off in the future.”

Allied planes are reported to have been allotted the task of guiding to prison camps those who are cut off and roaming the country. The Associated Press correspondent at 15th Army Headquarters (the first despatch received from this headquarters), says that the censorship to-night blacked out the makeup, mission and whereabouts of the new American 15th Army, but the name of its commanding general is on record. It is no secret that General Gerow is a man who likes to move fast.

BRITISH CANADIAN FRONT LONDON, March 21. A correspondent at Marshal Montgomery’s Headquarters states that both sides are vigorously patrolling the Rhine front. No other activity is reported from the Twenty-first Army Group front. A Reuter correspondent stated: “It is a lull before a storm on the lower Rhine. Marshal Montgomery’s forces are building up rapidly for Mr. Churchill’s “good strong heave all together,” which will see the"-Rhine crossed in tremendous strength, while the Red Army storms beyond the Oder in a gigantic pincer on the Reich. Zero hour is fast approaching for the beginning of a final showdown in Germany. British and Canadian-Am-erican armies are poised for decisive action to destroy the major portion of the German armies in the West. They may smash them oh the Rhine River line, and the Reich will be laid open. Marshal Montgomery’s confidence is .reflected in every Allied unit waiting on the lower Rhine. Regiments are all up to strength. Everyone is hopeful that impending battles ( will be decisive. Undoubtedly there is going to be heavy fighting on Rhine crossings. The Germans are known to have denuded the Ruhr of guns to man the east bank of ttfe river. They continue harassing shellfire along the river. German Home Service broadcast stated they were hitting at concentrations of pontoon an‘d bridging material. The enemy is extremely nervous about the situation along the lower Rhine, and is sending over reconnaissance ’planes nightly to take photographs by the light of • flares. Gigantic smoke screens are laid by

the Allies along thirty to forty miles of the Rhine south of Nijmegen, which obscure enemy observation during daylight. Marshal Montgomery, in a message printed in the first issue of the j British Army magazine, Soldier, declared: “We have entered the ring foi the last round, for which there is no time limit. We shall continue until our opponent has had- enough. CIVILIAN HOSTILITY LONDON, March 21. “German civilians in some Rhineland towns are showing hostility to the American occupation troops, says Reuter’s correspondent with the 3rd Army. “A 70-year-mld civilian at Oppenhaetsen drew a knife and stabbed a telephone operator of the 90th Infantry Division while he was working a switchboard. No sooner was he dragged out into the .street than he began stoning a nearby military policeman, who drew a pistol on the old man and took him to a prisoner of war cage. “There was a considerable amount of stone-throwing at Kreuznach. An American soldier said that a middleaged German woman threw a pail oi water at him. ‘These sullen, arrogant women are taking advantage of their sex to make things unpleasant for us,’ he said.”