GENERAL ADVANCE OF ALLIED LEFT

Grey River Argus, 11 April 1945, Page 5

GENERAL ADVANCE OF ALLIED LEFT

STRIKING BETWEEN HANOVER ANO BREMEN

CENTRE AND RIGHT FORCES KEEP UP PROGRESS

.(Rec. 11.55) LONDON, April 10 To-day’s communique from Allied Supreme Headquarters said: Allied forces captured Brackenheim, eight miles south-west of Heilbronn The. enemy continues to hold out in Siegfried Line fortifications soutn of Karlsruhe. „ , , , Our infantry .in the Ruhr pocket entered the north-western P ai ’t 01 Essen, after meeting • fairly stilt reWe have cleared Werl, eight miles west of Soest, and have reached Wiehagen, 12 miles west-south-wes-of Soest. ~ . Our forces on the eastern side or the Ruhr pocket took Meschede, and reached Hirschberg, six miles north of Meschede. Our armoured forces cleared Fredeburg, 11 miles south of Meschede. We have captured Saalhausen, eight miles west-south-west of Fredeburg; also Heinsburg, south of Saalhausen. We have entered Hilcheback. nine miles north-north-west of Siegen; also Buschhutten, six miles north of Siegen. Allied forces overcame enemy resistance at Meppen, and made good advances northward beyond Lathen. After crossing the Ems River, we occupied Furstenau, 15 miles east of Lingen. We captured Bassum. At Riede the enemy resistance is increasing. Our armourd units captured Niederstocken. Other units crossed the Leine River at Ricklingen, ten miles north-west of Hanover. Elements reached a point live miles from the western edge of the city. Our armoured units captured Gestorf, 11 miles south of Hanover; and cleared Hildesheim. Infantry have crossed the Leine River south of the town, and pushed on seven miles eastward. We have crossed the Weser Rivet'’ and reached Bodenfelde, 19 miles north-west of Gottingen. We took Diemarden and Reinhausen, four and five miles respectively south of Gottingen. Our forces are across the Leine River on an 11-mile front between Gottingen and a point just north-east of Witzenhausen. Our armour and infantry have entered Almanhausen, 12 miles east of Mulhausen. Our 1 armoured forces have occupied Eedheim, 15 miles south of Suhl. We are under four miles from Schweinfurt. We have widened the southern point of our Crailsheim salient against strong ground resistance, supported by an air attack. Our troops farther to the west pushed south of the Jagst River, and forced back the enemy to the Kocher River. House to house fighting continues in Heilbronn. Our fighter-bombers, which yesterday attacked airfields north of Hanover, destroyed 16S enemy aircraft. Allied air. forces during the day’s operations shot down 21. Eleven of our bombers and ten fighters are thusfar reported missing.

Attack on Bremen

BY THE BRITISH-: GERMANS RETIRE TO SUBURBS. LONDON, April 9. The Berlin radio said: “According to reports just received, a large-scale Allied attack against Bremen has begun.’’ The battle for Bremen is beginning, and the Germans are falling back on the suburbs, stated a British United Press correspondent. The Germans are so much on the run they have no time to get dynamite gangs working. German gunners around Bremen are shelling our lines with self-propelled guns, which move at night-time to take up new positions, but the enemy has lost nearly all of his big guns and dumps, and every shell screaming over our lines brings the Germans nearer to the end of their resources. With every war factory under lire from the air, and all his communications being bombed and gunned throughout the day, the enemy ought to know that his efforts have only a nuisance value. Our “Long Toms” field artillery is now in position in great strength around Bremen, and more guns are moving up hourly. While British tanks and infantry were pressing along the roads five miles outside the great German naval base of Bremen, this afternoon, the guns fired their first shells into the city, says a correspondent from outside Bremen. The enemy is blowing tip many of the bridges over the Weser south of Bremen, and it is reported by a civilian who came from Bremen this morning that the Germans have blown up all but one of the four bridges in the'city. The investment of Bremen is threatening to cut off the outlet for the paratroopers opposing our forces who drove into Germany from North-eastern Holland. There are also large numbers of troops to the west of the Weser, which the 7th Armoured Division by-passed in its great drive yes* terday. Another correspondent says that British armour, now five miles from the southern outskirts of Bremen, hold a front 16 miles below th e city. British tank spearheads were last night engaged in a stiff battle live miles south-east of Bremen. A 8.8. C. correspondent says the Germans are getting better organised in this sector. They have paratroops, panzer grenadiers, and a useful amount of artillery, on a defence line east, and west of the Weser. There is still a 20-mile gap between the 7th Armoured Division and the Guards’ Armoured Division coming up on the left. A hard fight is expected for Bremen. German resistance stiffened to-day with the arrival of an S.S. training regiment to bolster up the 15th Panzer Grenadier Division, which has been opposing our troops in their thrust towards the city from the south-west. On practically every sector of the British front there is evidence that German resistance is stiffening. The enemy is trying to form some semblance of a line. Soft spots hav e gone hard. There is little co-ordination about the enemy’s flabby defensive front.

CANADIANS’ PROGRESS.

(Rec. 6.30). ’ LONDON, April 9. , An Exchange Agency Telegraph correspondent at Allied Supreme Headquarters said that on Monday Canadian armoured units drove 17 miles northward to reach Beckhausen, 25 miles from Leer. There are Canadian armoured patrols 10 miles from the Zuider Zee. The Germans are manning the line to the Yssel River from Zwolle south to Deventer and Arnhem. The Germans blew up dykes and flooded an area of 20 square miles between Zwolle and Meppen. Northern Holland, west of Yssel, is isolated except for a 25-mile causeway across the northern end of the Zuider Zee. Canadian tanks have linked up with

the airborne troops east of the river Yssel. The Canadians have captured Zutphen, on the Yssel, 15 miles northeast of Arnhem. To the north, advances on the main road to Emden have brought- Canadian armour within 40 miles of the port.

Canadian tanks hold a 16-mile stretch of the east bank of the Ems, north of Meppen, and Canadian patrols have cut the last road north of Zwolle, east of the Zuider Zee. Canadian armoured units pushing north from Meppen aye to-night less than 30 miles from Emden. No further contact has been established with the airborne troops parachuted into Holland yesterday, but. wireless communication is still maintained.

The complete cutting off of the big German pocket in Western Holland seems a matter of hours, tonight, with Marshal Montgomery’s troops threatening Bremen, while at the other end of his front Canadian reconnaissance cars are within sight of the Zuider Zee, states the British United Press correspondent with Montgomery’s headquarters. The correspondent added that it had been a day of steady progress with a tightening net round all the Germans left west of the Weser River. The pocket already, is likely to be split in three parts by the Canadian thrust northwards towards Emden, from which the Canadians to-night are only 27 miles. The Canadian thrust against Meppen is also lopping the enemy off into separate forces, between the Ems and Weser from this in Western Holland. The Germans between the rivers consist at least of two paratroop divisions, besides troops whipped up from training centres. Canadian armour, along their western flank, pushed northward and captured two villages, rboth in an area 16 .miles north of Meppen. They also took an airfield. Along the eastern flank 'of the pocket, in an area south of Bremen, the Seventh Armoured Division is now meeting strong opposition from the east bank of the river. As far as the whole north-western GermanDutch pocket is concerned, the enemy appears to be likely to withdraw into one of his “Dunkirk” bases—Wilhelmshaven, Emden or Ijmuiden, a U-boat base. Remnants of the German forces are being forced back to •the sea. The German Army, at last, is up against a major sea evacuation, an operation without any seapower to back it up. Both Reuter’s and the Associated Press correspondents at Montgomery’s headquarters state that the operations threaten to isolate all unoccupied Holland and the rocket, coast,- in which the Germans are believed to have 150,000 to 200,000 men. FIGHT AT HANOVER LONDON, April 9. The Berlin radio stated Americans made further advances in the Hanover area as far as the north-western slopes of the Hartz Mountains, their tanks developing a twin thrust, one driving direct for Hanover and the other for the Hermann Goering works near Salzgitter and Gosler. The British airborne and United States 9th Army troops have linked up north-west of Hanover. The British 11th Armoured Division has advanced 20 miles beyond the Weser to reach the River Leine north-west of Hanover. The 6th Airborne Division is having a stiff fight to break out of its bridgeheads across the Leine. They were last reported six miles north-west of Hanover.

Troops of the Ninth Army’s 84th. Division are to-night within four miles of Hanover, which is now invested from three sides, says Reuter’s correspondent at S.H.A.E.F. Other 9th Army troops, after crossing the Leine River north of Hildesheim, struck east to within 20 miles of Brunswick. The 95th. Division gained eight to ten miles south of Hamm. LATEST REPORTS (Rec.' 11.50) LONDON, April 10 The British tank spearhead is reported to have reached a point fifteen miles north-west of Bremen. Agency correspondents say a solid wedge of British armour now separates Bremen and Pianover. Seventh Armoured Division tanks, standing on a sixteen mile front south of Bremen, are meeting toughening resistance, but have deepened their threat to the port. They established a new bridgehead across the Weser at Hoya, and another column reached a key road junction, Wildeshausen, through which all retreating Germans must pass. The Eleventh Armoured Division captured Nienburg in the area between the Weser and Leine Rivers, and sent another column ten miles down the east bank of the Leine, which reached Esperke, opposite Niedernstocken. Hanover is now outflanked. from both sides. The guards’ armoured division advanced anotnei two miles, but have encountered heavv opposition from paratroops. “Montgomery’s columns seemed to •be streaming up every road west of the Weser thick and fast,” said a Tempest reconnaissance pilot, after returning from one of the last missions last evening. “There seemed nothing to halt our columns, and nothing to help the Germans, tempest pilots are maintaining an ael circus over the area between Bremen and Hamburg. They saw scattered German traffic, tanks and armoured vehicles -and lorries, with trailers, staff cars, and horse drawn tians ports moving eastward and north eastward as fast as they could. A battle group of the Canadian Fourth Armoured Division Pushmg up the east bank ol the Ems River reached a point twenty-five , miles from Emden, reports a Reuter s correspondent with the Canadians. Allied planes heavily attacked a considerable German convoy movement east of the Leer to Oldenburgh, including a number of trains, indicating > a possible abandonment of Emden. Another Canadian tank battle group advanced six miles to Bogger, but, on meeting strong resistance frorri bazookas and small arms it pu.led back to await strong reinforcements.

Ruhr Struggle

AMERICANS IN ESSEN. LARGE AREAS ABLAZE. LONDON, April 9. In the Ruhr pocket American _9th Army troop's smashed their way into Essen, and reached the fringe of the Krupps works, Germany’s largest war plant. They are fighting in the streets in the north-west corner of the city, Troops of the Ninth American Army entered Essen and found, the great armament works badly damaged, says Reuter’s correspondent. No work had been done in the factories since the R.A.F. put them out of action in a big raid on March 11. “The Ruhr to-night was glowing like a great torch,” say ( s the British United Press correspondent. “The great industrial basin, once the heart' of Germany’s war machine, is blazing from end to end,-and ruin

and flames are coming down over the heads of about 100,000 trapped Germans. Time and time again they fling in desperate eleventh-hour efforts to hammer a way out of the trap of steel and flame. Allied guns are simultaneously blasting centres of resistance, even farm houses are being pulverised when it is discovered they are being employed as strongpoints. Our tanlf;, mortars and artillery have joined in the systematic job of planned destruction. “I have seen much of this war’s devastation, but neyer anything like the destruction, of the Ruhr. The trapped enemy fights back with the courage of fanaticism. There are paratroopers and S.S. men who try-, to hold on to the death inside basements, and who must be flushed out before our advance can proceed. Sometimes the flushing process is done by lire, t ie buildings being set alight above the Germans to smoke them out or burn them out. I saw three such fires in the Wesel area. An American military policeman said: ‘We are simply roasting them out until they quit’. V weapon sites are being captured in and around the Ruhr. We captured intact two which the Germans are believed to have prepared as alternative sites in the event of Holland being overrun. We also continue everywhere to free foreign labour slaves. I saw Russians. Poles, Czechoslovakians, French, Greeks, Dutch, Italians, Norwegians and Estonians flowing back from liberated districts. This released human flood is one of the most heart-breaking spectacles of the whole war. Some had .sacking around their feet instead of shoes, some were on crutches, and some trudging with bleeding feet.” . , . The Ruhr pocket is still shrinking and measures about 43 miles by 60. Reconnaissance pilots reported that the Germans appear to be building up at least two concentrations for a possible attempt to break out. Four of our divisions are pushing into this great industrial area through factories, pithead buildings and residential areas. The Ninth Army infantry slipped into the Ruhr pocket between Essen and Gelsenkirchen to-day to reach the Ruhr River. . Correspondents at Supreme Headquarters were told that the Germans had no chance to break out of the Ruhr pocket, even if they were able to launch a co-ordinated attack.

Race to Berlin ' BY AMERICAN ARMIES LONDON, April 9. There is no fresh news of the American 9th Army tanks which bypassed Hanover to the south in the direction of Brunswick, 30 miles further east. About 40 miles south ot this drive, American First Army forces were yesterday reported to have cleared Gottingen, on the Leine River, 30 miles north-east of Cassel. The Allied armies are developing a solid line linking all their deep tank thrusts into Germany. The American First, Third and Ninth Armies are now pushing towards Berlin in one closely-knit force, state front line correspondents to-night. Prisoners continue to pour in, and about 50,000 have been captured bv tjiese three armies alone in the past 24 hours. - Seven German towns beyond Hildesheim sent in emissaries to the United States Second Armoured Division offering to surrender unconditionally before they were under range of the Allied guns, reports an American broadcaster with the Ninth Army. Prisoners in this sector are pouring in. The Second Division alone took 1000 prisoners this morning. . • On Monday the American First Army drove into Dunderstadt, approximately 140 miles from Berlin, thus taking a slight lead over the Third Army in the race to Berlin. First Army infantry, moving against .only scattered groups of disorganised Germans, went through Gottingen to take Dunderstadt, while other fastmoving forces north-east of Gottingen pushed 18 miles to Einbeck, where a German major-general came out to surrender without a fight. Tanks south of Einbeck rolled eleven miles to the west of Northeim, where they met tierce anti-tank tire from roadblocks. Farther south still, Shermans were held up in a light with Tiger tanks manned by German “Dead End Kids.” The First Army yesterday crossed the Leiner River north-east of Cassel on an 11-mile front south of Gottingen. The British Sixth Airborne Division troops to-day established a bridgehead east of the Leiner River to a depth of more than ’2OOO yards. Two bridges over the river were captured intact. The First United States Army is now within 140 miles of Berlin, according to a Western Front correspondent. Infantry elements have linked with General Patton’s Third Army tanks south-west of Heilingenstadt, 13 miles south-east of Gottingen, after the other unit had taken Heilingenstadt. Armoured units have thrust 18 miles from the River Weser to take Einbeck, 20 miles north of Gottingen. Tank forces drove 11 miles to reach a point within a mile of Nordheim and eight miles from Neustadt. Infantry gained 11 miles capturing Duderstadt, 13 miles east of Gottingen, and others advancing eight miles reached a point four miles south-west of Duderstadt. The enemy on the First Army front are fleeing fast to the Elbe River. Huge columns of motor and horsedrawn transport are to-night congesting the enemy’s front-line roads in a desperate race to beat the First U.S. Army forces to Germany’s last river line. _ Our aircraft to-day spotted 400 motor transport 30 miles north of Nordheim, another 150 or more south of Nordheim, and, a colossal, uncountable number around Nordheim itself. They will probably never get to the river in time.

“Cities and towns are only of secondary importance in the great west front operation,” says the New York Time’s correspondent at S.H.A.Ej.F’., Drew Middleton. “General Eisenhower’s primary objective is the encirclement and destruction of the German Army. General Eisenhower has embarked on a new policy, that, granted adequate supplies, he should destroy what is left of the German forces in the west before June 1.” The first Allied train to-day crossed the Rhine over a bridge built by American engineers in 11 days, reports the British United Press correspondent. The engineers worked continuous dav and night shifts. From 500 to 1000 waggons to-day crossed the bridge, which can handle the heaviest goods train in Europe. The four armies under General Bradley captured about 37,600 yesterday and the Ruhr pocket has already yielded 16,340. U.S. THIRD ARMY ADVANCE 'LONDON, April 9. The Third Army to-day consolidated their positions and checked German attempts to start counter-attacks ten miles north-west of Mulnausen infantry advanced up to four miles and reached points four miles northeast and 22 miles south of Gotha and four miles north-east ol Buhl. Columns of American vehicles are now moving to Frong over the FrankfurtBerlin autobahn. The files on which Dr Alfred Rosenberg, the Nazi philosopher based his pseudo-scientific attacks against the Jews have been found in the little town of Hungen, ten miles