LATE MESSAGES

Greymouth Evening Star, 27 April 1945, Page 6

LATE MESSAGES

BREMEN'S SURRENDER.

RUGBY, April 26. The whole of the city of Bremen on both banks of the River Weser nas been cleared and good progress is being made in mopping up the dock area, cables a correspondent in the city. News of the surrender spread rapidly through the city, and the people appeared on the streets as if from nowhere. In the centre of the city people stood in groups at most street corners. At some points it .was more like the liberation of an Allied city as the people waved and cheered to the troops, and offered them wine and brandy looted from stores. As the troops pushed into the centre of the city, they were met by police and officials, who rushed into the roadway shouting “please we want to surrender.” People began to di;ibble into the streets from shelters. It is said there are still 300.000 civilians in the city, who have been living in collars and big community shelters. The troops said that as they advanced through tne city during the night, they only saw a few civilians, some of whom fired on them. They also caught a party ol women trying to lay mines in the street. The majority of the people appeared to be extremely relieved by the arrival of the British, troops. One of the burgomaster’s assistants said that the main force of the enemy had pulled out of the city during the night.

CIVILIANS’ PREFERENCE

LONDON. April 26

When an American officer rang up the Burgomaster of Oschatz and asked him the position there, the Burgomaster replied there are 5000, German troops in the town which is under artillery fire from the Russians, says Reuter’s correspondent with the Americans on the Mulde River. The American major told the correspond dent: “There is nothing of any consequence between us and the Russians. The Germans are concerned only’ with getting into American hands before the Russians catch them.” Any delay in link-up is not the result of German opposition between the Mulde and Elbe rivers, adds the correspondent. Crowds of surrendering Germans and liberated Allied prisoners are swarming into ihe "American lines. Thousands of German civilians with white flags wept and pleaded with Americans to be taken prisoner before the Russians overtook them. Another patrol ol" 18 Americans took prisoner 2000 Ger-* man soldiers. Reuter’s correspondent with the 3rd Army says: Civilians who walked from as far away as Dresden and Potsdam are crowding the west bank of the Mulde. trying to reach the American lines, but they arc not allowed to cross. One lieutenant on patrol almost to ihe Elbe encountered about 600 German women walking eight abreast. The American 3rd Army troops overran a war prisoners’ 'camp near the Danube. They liberated 150 officers and 6000 Russians, Poles, French, Serbs, but the guards rushed 1800 British, Canadian and American officers south of the Danube as General Patton’s men were sweeping towards the camp.

ABSENCE OF TARGETS

RUGBY, April 26.

The final division of Hitler’s Germany into isolated pockets of resistance now appears an accomplished fact,'says Reuter’s correspondent at Montgomery’s Headquarters. The intensive air’ reconnaissance over the entire area between Hamburg and the Russian lines to-day disclosed a complete absence of German transport aircraft or troop movement. Considerable enemy transport is flooding into Denmark across the Reich frontier, cables a correspondent at Montgomery’s Pilots of Continental-based Second Tactical Air Force Tempests reported on Tinu'sday afternoon “considerable movement” on roads north-west of the Reich border town of Fleftsberg across the frontier into Denmark. By late afternoon the Tempests had destroyed or damaged 47 enemy vehicles.

Second Tactical Air Force Spitfire pilots roamed the area west of Berlin on Thursday virtually hunting the enemy to or from the battle of Berlin. After sweeping hundreds of square miles from west and north of the capital almost to the Baltic coast they found no targets to report. One pilot sums up the situation as follows: “We combed the whole area up to the Russian line and there was no military movement to be seen.. We visited all airfields but could find no aircraft. Wc searched lakes and there were no seaplanes. We flew up and down every possible road and there was not even a. German jeep to bo seen.” SETBACK ~IN~ 11OLLAND LONDON, 'April 26. The Allied forces who crossed the Maas, west of Nijmegen, have now withdrawn across the'river, says the- “ Exchange Telegraph’s” correspondent with the Canadians.. The Germans in pulling back behind the Eem River directed troops againG Ihc crossings and counter-attacked in some force against the troops who had established the bridgehead. DANUBE AREA LONDON, April 26. Advancing practically unhindered down the valley between the Danube and Czechoslovakia, Third Army spearheads are now less than nine miles from the junction of the Austrian, German and Czechoslovak borders says Reuter’s correspondent. Americans farther westward, building up bridgeheads across the Danube around Regensburg, are meeting only small arms and bazooka fire. Other Third Army units, supported by divebombers, fought their way into Ingolstadt, one of the oldest fortress cities on the Danube. There has been surprisingly licffit opposition to the Danube crossings where the Allies had expected, the Germans to do everything possible to prevent their breaching the redoubt perimeter. Significantly, there are no reports of artillery fire c/jntesting General Patton’s advance. ROMMEL'S DE/iTTI. LONDON, April 26. Rommel’s widow, found living in a suburb of Ulte, confirmed that hoi* husband died as the result of wounds when ar. Allied fighter bomber strafed his car, says an Associated Press correspondent with the Seventh Army. He died from a heart attack on October 14, 1944, when he was thought Lo be on the way to recovery.

RUSSIAN CAPTURES. LONDON, April 26. A Russian communique states: wWw 0V ’ s troops yesterday prisonered 2000 and captured 70 planes, 30 tanks and. self-propelled guns, 248 fieldguns, 1400 lorries, and more than 3000 trucks. Koniev’s forces prisonered 1500, captured 238 tanks and selfpropelled guns and 236 field-guns. Sremenstadt, Berlin’s largest indus- • trial _ district, the Coerlitzer railway terminus, and Nonigswusterhausen, the sice of the Deutschlandsender radio station, have been captured. These successes were announced in a Soviet communique which says: South-west-ward °A Pll . lau > troops of the Third White Russian front to-day crossed tlie canal linking the Baltic Sea with Frischens haff, and continued their offensive along Frischenehrung. Thecommunique repeats the order of the day to Rokossovsky and adds: Rokossovsky s troops also crossed the Ran-

dom Canal (running parallel with the Oder about twelve miles west of Stettin). Zhukov’s troops continued to wage stubborn street battles in Berlin and captured the districts of Gaatenstadt and Siemenstadt (five miles' north of the centre of the citv), and Goerlitzer Station. North-east 'of Berlin' they captured, the large inhabited localities of Finow, Finowfurt and Marienwerder. West and southwest of Frankt'urt-on-Oder, Zhukov’s troops occupied Konigswusterhausen, eighteen miles south-east of Berlin, Neumuhle, one mile east of Konigswusterhausen, Storkow, thirteen miles south east of Berlin, and Liberose, fifteen miles north of Kottbus. Koniev’s troops after street fighting in the south-western part of Berlin captured the city district of Hahlem and on the western bank of the Elbe they captured Torgau Strahla. In the Baut-z-en area they continued to repel strong enemy count-er-attacks.

In Breslau after street battles, our

troops occupied several districts of the western part of the city and also the gerater part of the arsenal, where they captured 110 guns.

i V DAY CELEBRATIONS.

RUGBY, April 26. I Questions regarding victory cele- ; brations were put to the Prime Mini ister in the Commons. I Replying to a suggestion that in I the opinion of a great many people it would be madness to be ringing joy 1 bells and feasting while our fellow I subjects were still under the control i of the Germans in the Channel Is- • lands and the people in Norway re- ' mained in the position in which ' they are now, Mr. Churchill said: t “That is one of the reasons why I i think great caution ought to be observed in any celebration. However, ' great events may occur which even if they do not affect any particular

locality or point would none the less stir the people here and they might indulge in some few moments of rejoicing before returning to their heavy tasks.”

Answering a further question whether it would not be callous to celebrate while our men are still going out to Burma to fight, Mr. Churchill said it would be a very foolish thing to celebrate and have speeches made or ioy bells rung about the defeat of Germany—after all a considerable event—without at the same time public men of every party making it perfectly clear that our war with Janan goes forward. The Prime Minister also told the Commons that he thought the report of the parliamentary delegation which visited the horror camp at Buchenwald would be published on Friday. He added: “I have only read portions of it myself. It seems to be of the most painful character and deeply interesting.”