CAPTURE OF SPEYER

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 March 1945, Page 5

CAPTURE OF SPEYER

MORE REMAGEN PROGRESS MONTY'S MOVE IMMINENT (Rec. 11.5 a.m.) LONDON, March 23. Speyer has been captured, says the Associated Press correspondent with the Third Army. The British United Press correspondent with the Third Army says that the Germans have blown up the railway bridge spanning the Rhine east of Germersheim.' General Bradley stated that General Eisenhower’s order to destroy the German forces west of the Rhine has been fulfilled. The German News Agency says that shock formations of American amphibious tanks, last night, under cover of fierce artillery fire and artificial fog crossed the Rhine near Oppenheim. Part of the group was destroyed, but a few remnants remain. Vigorous patrolling and sharp clashes between probing parties of Germans and British and Canadians were to-day reported from the Nijmegen sector, reports Reuter’s correspondent with the Twenty-first Army group. Two German raiding parties were repulsdd with heavy losses, including 20 killed. The German News Agency late this morning reported artillery duels across the Rhine for the second successive day. “The preparations for the crossing of the Lower Rhine by Marshal Montgomery’s Twenty-first Army Group appear to be complete,” added the Agency. Reuter’s correspondent at Allied Headquarters says that the prolonged period of dry fine weather has hardened the grouncT in North-west Germany and armoured vehicles should find the going not impeded by mud. Speyer was the focal point of the last German pocket west of the Rhine, in the Saar industrial area, says the British United Press correspondent with the Third Army. There are believed to be still 10,000 Germans west of the Rhine, but they are mostly tied down in rearguard actions. The First Army’s bridgehead across the Wied River is now two and a half miles deep, following the capture of Breitscheid, seven and a half miles east of Linz, says Reuter’s correspondent. In the Remagen bridgehead, the Americans hold 31 river miles along the east bank of the Rhine, and their deepest penetration eastward is 10 miles. They hold 17 miles of the Cologne-Frankfurt autobahn. One division has advanced three miles since last night, indicating the possibility of a startling development. Americans in the central sector of the bridgehead, which was previously the «cene of the heaviest and most, desperate German resistance, reported only light contact wiTn the enemy. The correspondent adds that the resistance seems to be crumbling. “It looks as though they have nothing to stop us.’

OFFENSIVE LAUNCHED?

LONDON, Marell 23

The Paris radio, quoting German reports, says that Field-Marshal Monrgomery’s forces have launched an offensive between Arnhem and Dusseldorf on a 62-mile front and have crossed the Rhine. There is no confirmation from any other source’

MAINZ CLEARED

LONDON, March 23

Forces of the 3rd Army have completed the clearing of Mainz, where 300 prisoners have been taken. Further south, 3rd Army tanks are striking hard into the dwindling German pocket in the south-eastern corner of the Palatinate. Forces of the 7th Army, near the southern border of the Palatinate have captured Pirmasens. The 10th Armoured Division ol the 3rd Army was reported yesterday only 19 miles north-west ol Karlsruhe. The only main road leading out of the German-held pocket has been cut west of Landau, and although secondary roads are available they will soon be of little use to the Germans. Seventh Army.units beyond Kaiserslautern are intermingling with 3rd Army troops. The American Ist Army’s bridgehead east of the Rhine south oi Cologne was last reported to be ex miles long and it is still being expanded. , . The correspondent oi the Assoeiated Press says that authoritative officers have revealed that the Oeimans have been withdrawing b.o. and Gestapo troops from the front line for the last two months for. tor; purpose of organising a last-ditcn stand in the interior of Germany. S.S. and Gestapo troops are usually used to force German soldiers to keep up the fight. A large Allied bag of prisoners recently taken led x investigations which revealed then sudden withdrawal.

UNDERGROUND CITY

LONDON, March 22 ‘•The Americans found what amounted to an underground city under the wreckage of the town o Mayen,” says an Associated Pies, correspondent. ‘‘Civil affairs were administered from a "town hal_ carved in rock below a twelfth cen tury castle. A subterranean passage 1200 ft long with wide gallen..s housed the municipal staff, police and five departments and a large section of the population. Ihe 3rd Army found 3500 persons in refuge there.* Another . Mayen ca/e sheltered 2000. During air laid. 12,000 lived underground.

GERMAN “ADVANTAGES.

CLAIMS BY GOEBBELS.

LONDON, March 23 “We have become poor in the means necessary to wage war, but we shall try to make up for this deficiency by bold and grandiose improvisations, writes Goebbels in the latest issue o, “Das Reich.” We shall beat our enemies in the east and west. “The present military situation almost entirely favours our enemies, and the military and political crisis of this war is likely to become still more acute in -the immediate future. However, in the political field the advantages are all on the German side. Claiming that the political unity of the Allies ended with the determination to destroy Germany, Goebbels said that beyond this point there were rooted differences ■ among the Allies all along the line. The approach of danger to the soil of Germany had again called forth in the nation the famous “furor Teutonicus” —that holy wrath which had overcome the initial paralysing horror. “That we have suffered defeats is due solely to the enemy’s material superiority,” added Goebbels., “We suffer bitterly at the thought that the enemy is nqw fighting on our soil in the east and west, but we are determined to exploit our tactical and strategic advantages arising from, this fact, regardless of the cost. If the enemy tries to force us to our knees by terror we shall react with an equally effective, nay, more effective counter terror.”