RHINE CROSSED?

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21671, 24 March 1945, Page 6

RHINE CROSSED?

Y. NORTHERN FRONT PARIS RADIO NEWS LONDON, March 23. The Paris radio, quoting German reports, says Field Marshal Montgomerys’ 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. The British United Press points out that the radio may have misinterpreted the German News Agency's afternoon broadcast. The cabled report should therefore be treated with the greatest reserve. The First Army forces in the Remagen bridgehead have pushed the Germans southward within seven and a half miles of Coblenz and northward the Americans fought their way into Hennef, three miles south-east of Siegburg and extended their hold along nine miles of the south bank of the Sieg River, says the Associated Press correspondent. The opposition was comparatively light. The bridgehead is now 29 miles long and nine deep. For the first time in the European theatre a low-flying troop-carrier today, snatched a casualty-filled glider from the Remagen bridgehead to inaugurate a new shuttle service for evacuating wounded men from the front-line areas. Glider evacuation has'been previously carried out in India and Burma. The new service will evacuate about 450 wounded men a day. They were in hospital five minutes after leaving the bridgehead. German Ranks Thinned We anticipated finding odds ana ends .of infantry, paratroopers ana Pahzer divisions drawn up in some sort of order along the east bank oi the Rhine. The Germans, although they speak of army groups and divisions, have an unbelievably small number of troops for defence of the vital Ruhr areas. We probably outnumber them by hundreds to one in tariks, guns and planes. The blowing of '.bridges across the network of canals and rivers which crisscross the whole area will be one of the engineering problems we shall have to face, but we obviously anticipated this and when our assault troops jump ofl they will be accompanied by engineers with all the equipment necessary to keep the armies rolling. Our forward observers have seen slave labourers across the Rhine digging long lines of ditches farther back. They are constructing concrete and steel blocks on the roads. Everybody is digging, building or felling trees tc 'place across the roads. ,