ONLY A BRIDGEHEAD

Grey River Argus, 23 March 1945, Page 5

ONLY A BRIDGEHEAD

LEFT TO ENEMY WEST OF MID-RHINE Enemy Remnant a Rabble (Rec. 12.2’0.) LONDON, March 22. Thursday’s communique from Allied Supreme Headquarters said: Allied forces have reduced the Germanheld area south of the River Moselle and vzest of the Rhine to a little over a- bridgehead. The enemy units remaining in the area are completely disorganised. We have captured Gonsenheim, one and a-half miles west of Mainz; and Dexheim, eleven miles south of Mainz. Our armoured units have entered Ludwigshafen and reached the Rhine one mile north of the town. Our forces, farther to the southwest, are fighting in’ Neustadt. We have cleared Kaiserlautern. Allied armies advancing from the north-west have made another linkup south of Ottweiler. We have occupied Saint Ingbert, south of Ottweiler, and Homberg, east, of Ottweiler. Enemy forces between Pirmasens and the Rhine are fighting stubbornly to maintain their escape route.' We have in the Remagen bridgehead cleared Beual, opposite Bonn, and have reached the Sieg River over a seven-mile front, as far north as Niederpleis, five and a-half miles east of the Rhine. We have repulsed several counterattacks at an airfield near Eudenback. The enemy has continued to direct heavy artillery and mortar - fire at the centre of the bridgehead. The Remagen bridgehead now is approximately 25 miles long, and eight miles deep. Allied forces in the West on Tuesday took 8683 prisoners. Nineteen enemy planes were shot down yesterday in all operations. Nine of our heavy bombers, five mediums, and 21 fighters are missing. An Exchange Telegraph correspondent at S.H.A.E.F., stated: The German bridgehead west of the Rhine is now compressed into a triangle between Neustadt, Pirmasens and the Rhine. There are few escape routes which have not been cut. Resistance west of Pirmasens has completely been disintegrated. U.S. Ist army progress CROSSING OF SIEG RIVER 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 Niederpleis, five miles north-east of Bonn, says a correspondent with the First Army. The 78th Division, which, achieved this gain in a three and a half mile advance on a seven mile front is now on the outskirts of Sieburg, which is under point-blank fire from American guns. The 78th Division captured at least seven towns and villages. The Germans apparently gave up 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 ami will probablj' 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.

NEW REMAGEN BRIDGES. ENEMY EXPECTS BIG BATTLE. (Rec. 1.13). LONDON, March 22. An Associated Press correspondent states: A veil of security restrictions was to-day lifted slijhtly to permit a disclosure that the United Slates Ist Army has now several bridges across the Rhine to the Remagan bridgehead. One was thrown, across the river in the record time of ten hours. The German News Agency said:— The battle on the Rhine bank opposite Remagen bridgehead is one if the most formidable of the war. Americans are pumping in more and more reinforcements. Big operations will be launched from the bridgehead in the near future. • ’ NEW U.S. ARMY LONDON. March 22 The new American 15th Army is now operating. There is a black out on its movements also its make-up, mission and whereabouts. The name of its commanding General is on record. It is no secret that General Gerow is a .man who likes to move fast.

THIRD ARMY'S GREAT ADVANCE. PLANES LEND BIG SUPPORT. (Rec. 10.10). LONDON, March 22. A Times correspondent stated:— What living space remains to the Germans west of the Rhine is dwindling rapidly. Third Army tank columns roll on and behind them on parallel paths with infantry, with daily advances of over 10 miles, keeping well up. The enemy has now suffered a disaster even worse than his earlier debacle north of the Moselle. It is not easy to estimate the exa'ct number of Germans taken prisoner. A Times correspondent at Allied Supreme Headquarters said; German losses of equipment, including artillery, have been equally heavy. Much of "it. is in good order, but much is mangled, and charred. Burnt-out vehicles litter roads along which enemy columns made desperate dashes in an effort to get away across the Rhine and were caught by the 19th Tactical Air Force, whose pilots claimed the destruction or damaging of 1237 horse-drawn vehicles, including many artillery pieces. Pilots who set off again soon after 7 a.m. on Wednesday reported a mad rush eastward with every horse team at full gallop. Drivers, as American planes flew over, would leap from their seats into a ditch or whatever cover was available, leaving vehicles to crash". The Third .Army, from the time it crossed the Kyll Rievr unul it reached Worms, advanced about 140 miles in 118 hours. The corres-; pondent points out that the tanks mileage was ever greater, because they’detoured in order to confuse the enemy, and even sometimes doubled back on their tracks. United States forces have reached Ludwigshafen, and are nearing Mannheim. Elements of one infantry division, in an 11-mile advance, reached a point seven miles north-west of Ludwigshafen. Only two enemy pockets remain behind the Americans, one of which is south-east of Kirn. The Third Army controls the Rhine on its front, except for narrow areas between Mainz and Bingen, and between Mainz and Ludwigshafen. On Tuesday the U.S. Third Army took 14,000 prisoners, bringing their total for two days to 35,000. A slave labour camp 10 miles south-west of St. Wendel was overrun; and 300 Rus-

sians, 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 Ottweiler. The Siegfried Line west of Zweibrucken collapsed with the capture of Saarbrucken, Volkingen and Zweibrucken. Kaiserlautern, with a peace-time population of 60,000, fell to 25 Americans. It had long been considered a town hard to take. On the route of the U.S. 10th Armoured Division south-east of Kaiserlautern, dead Germans, bloated horses, burntout vehicles, and charred carts, all headed eastward, line both sides of the road for 50 miles.

3rd. ARMY TAKES MORE TOWNS. (Rec. 10.40). LONDON, March 22. A British United Press correspondent with the U.S. Third Army stated: Tanks from the Fourth Armoured Division of the Third Army, advancing north from Worms, cleared seven towns, including Dalheim (seven miles south of Mainz), where the Division contacted troops from the U.S. 90th Infantry Division. The Third Army’s 10th Armoured Division entered Neustadt. This is only 19 miles from Seventh Army forces who are advancing north from Wissembourg.

German Retreat BEFORE 3rd AND 7th U.S. ARMIES LONDON, March 21 Armoured units of the American Third Army entered the Rhine town of Ludwigshafen. They found that the bridge linking the city with Mannheim had been demolished. Other tanks which advanced seven miles eastward reached the Rhine, one mile north of the outskirts of Ludwigshafen and four miles from those inside the city, says correspondents. Ludwigshafen which originally was only a suburb of Mannheim, with which it was linked by one of the most imposing of the Rhine bridges, had grown in the century before the war to a city of 143,000 with important industries, including chemicals, iron foundries, sawmills and breweries. Third Army forces on Wednesday, advanced nine miles, cleared 20 and entered four places. Since the beginning of March, they have captured 5,230 square miles of the Rhineland and captured 4,225 places. On the eastern flank, the Seventh Army made further limited advances on Wednesday against stubborn resistance. One division encountered the stiffest opposition from multibarrelled mortars, north of Wissernbourg. French armoured units and Algerian infantrymen nearer the Rhine drove several miles against strong opposition through a forest near the eastern end of the Siegfried Ll The Germans retreating across the Rhine left a huge stock of undamaged railway equipment including 2.5UU freight cars of which many are loaded with coke and coal, while another 2,000 freight cars and 40 locomotives need only minor repairs. Tms windfall is estimated to have saved the Allies millions of man-hours and released thousands of tons of shipping space for other purposes.

REFUGEE EXODUS FROM RHINE TOWNS. LONDON, March 22. There is a mass exodus eastward of refugees from Frankfurt, Mannheim, and Ludwigshamen, and German 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.