ALLIES CLOSE ON HAMBURG & BREMEN

Grey River Argus, 21 April 1945, Page 5

ALLIES CLOSE ON HAMBURG & BREMEN

NUREMBERG ENCIRCLED & TUBINGEN TAKEN SPORADIC ENEMY ADVANCE NEAR BRUNSWICK

(Rec. 12.50,’) LONDON, April 20 To-day’s communique from Supreme Allied Headquarters says: Allied forces occupied Harderwrjk. Reconnaissance units entered Kuinre and Kampen. The whole of northeastern Holland has virtually been liberated.

“The enemy has maintained pressure against our bridgehead across the Kusten Canal, but we farther eastward closed up to the outskirts of Delmenhorst, seven miles west of Bremen, and took Adelheide, three miles south of Delemnhorst. “The enemy suffered a decisive defeat in Luneburg and Heath. Armoured forces advanced to under ten miles from Hamburg, and are along the Hamburg-Bremen autobahn for over twelve miles. Our armour captured Luneburg ,and pushed on to Elve, south of the town. There the enemy is offering strong opposition. “Enemy forces in an area thirtyfive miles north-east of Brunswick launched a counter-attack, approximately of division strength. It was supported by twenty-five tanks, halt tracks and self-propelled guns. Enemy task forces counter-attacking rapidly to south-eastward, by-passed our units, and thev penetrated for fifteen miles in the direction of the Klotze forest before we had brought the situation under control. “In the Hartz forest we entered Quedlinburg and Elbingerode, fifteen miles west of Quedlinburg, and Ballenstedt. “Our units have cleared Halle and have almost cleared Leipzig and reached the area of Chemnitz.” “We entered Bischofsgrun, twelve miles north-east of Bayreuth. “Units advancing from west and east contacted eight miles south of Nuremberg and completely encircled the city. The enemy inside the city were driven into an area one mile square where house to house f'"hting is progressing. We have southeast of Nuremberg reached Neumarkt. We captured two near Furth, west of Nuremberg and reached Markendorf, 24 miles southwest of Nuremberg “We captured a number of towns in a five mile advance south of Rothenburg. Between Heilbroon and Nuremberg we captured Fightenberg, Vord and Mittelrot. Yesterday we took 8,101 prisoners, including three generals, 150 firemen, and a trainload of women auxiliaiies. “We captured Tubingen, southwest of Stuttgart, and hold a twenty miles stretch of the upper Neckah River. The road from Strasbourg to Tubingen through the Black forest is in our hands. . “We made progress in the Maritime Alps and captured Brief. “The Allies on Wednesday took 50,626 prisoners.”

GERMANS COUNTER-ATTACK. LONDON, April 19. A German counter-attack behind the 9th. Army lines enabled them to re-enter three small villages. The attack was launched in the Wittigen area and supported by about 25 tanks and self-propelled guns. Reuter’s correspondent says that fighting is still going on. Some German forces penetrated 15 miles in the direction of Klotze, 35 miles north-west of Magdeburg. The Exchange Telegraph Agency’s correspondent at Supreme Headquarters says: It is known our rapid advances overran and isolated enemy groups. Apparently a number of these group:, to about divisional strength, congregated in a wooded area north-west of Magdeburg. No anxiety is felt and it is officially stated the attack does not constitute a serious threat. STRONG DEFENCE OF NUREMBERG (Rec. 12.50) LONDON, April 20 Thousands of fanatical Germans are fighting with unbelievable ferocity in the inner city of Nuremberg, which is roughly two square miles and is surrounded by a high wall. All the gates of the inner city are sealed off and heavily defended. This is reported by a Reuter correspondent in a delayed dispatch. Completely isolated the Germans are fighting to the last under a rain of American shells. The savagery of the fighting in this last island of resistance in the nursery of Nazism has been shown in north-western suburbs, where veteran American infanrty haq to clear five-story apartment houses loom by room, giving no quarter and expecting none. To reach the apartments they blasted a way across railroad tracks which Germans had dug foxholes in. They had to use tanks to crush screaming, defiant defenders.

GEN. BRADLEY’S STATEMENT. LONDON, April, 19. The Americans have reached the end of the recent phase which took them deep into Germany. They must pause temporarily' before developing a new di'ive across Germany, said General Bradley addressing pressmen at the 12th. Army Group Headquarters. As to-day’s German communique admits, the battle of the Ruhr is ended General Bradley said, the chief importance of the Ruhr pocket was that the Allies bottled up elements of at least 17 divisions, which otherwise wouldj have been opposing the advance eastward. “The pocket turned out much larger than nnv 1 of us guessed. We got two corps and nine division commanders. There is reason to believe some other high ranking commanders are still running around in there, probably in civilian clothes, trying to get out. seventeen American, divisions were used in reducing the pocket.” 'The German News Agency’s version was that the Germans contained two American armies. “In weeks of heroic fighting they resisted to the last breath” BRITISH ADVANCE ON HAMBURG. (Pec 8.30). LONDON, April 20. A correspondent at Marshal Montgomery’s headquarters said: Veteran tank crews of the Seventh Armoured nivision opened a battle for Hamburg S Thursday night. They entered Buchholz from where British were shelling Harburg, which is Hamburg’s largest suburb. Spearheads advanced X miles nofth and three miles east tn control 12 miles of the Bremenwnmburg autobahn. Tanks moved Sward the city’s principal defences. mhP Eleventh Armoured Division on right flank of the Seventh Divisnn are three-quarters of the way to Purlin from the Rhine crossing and within a quarter of a mile o the t coenberg bridge across the Elbe, captured large numbers of GerT on y infantry falling back to the ma ccin n ps On Wednesday Himmler CroSS in S ßremen, and on Monday in organising the S.S. for last"S defences, according to refugees saw him. He said: “You must gve your last drop’ of blood for theFU A eh p e pnter correspondent with the ■A. i9 n d Army saidL The Desert Rats S are ieally speeding now. They

bounded forward more than 20 miles on Wednesday night. Tanks charged across bridges prepared fdr demolition before the Germans had time to blow them up. When they reached the southern edge of a thick forest below Buchholz they found burning black woods bristling with bazookas and anti-tank guns. The General commanding the Seventh Division then switched the Hussars’ Regiment round in favour of left hook tactics, and by: 11 a.m on Thursday the troops reached the Bremen-Hamburg autobahn, while the Durham Light Infantry had swung round the eastern fringe of the forest and invested Buchholz. An Exchange Telegraph Agency correspondent said: A rumble of demolitions came across the river from Hamburg as the first British shells dropped there. British tanks had to fight all the way to the autobahn and even when they got to it they found strong German forces manning defence positions. Anti-tank guns were covering every crossroad. There were eight self-propell-ed guns at one crossroad alone. Tanks knocked out four. The remainder withdrew. Enemy bazooka' squads were in every hamlet, and fought stubbornly in an effort to halt the tanks. British mobile infantry cleaned out their nests with flame-throw-ers. The Germans blew up most of the bridges, even over the tiniest streams, but the tanks generally managed to find a way round, _ and sappers following them hastily, built new bridges or cut new roads with, bulldozers. At one stage a little man riding a bicycle stopped the leading tanks. He stood in the middle of the road and took off his boots, from which he extracted a pamphlet. The tank commander immediately sent him back in a scout car to headquarters, where he explained that he represented, the Hamburg “Peace Party”. He said the party was anxious to hold a peace demonstration one day soon, at which twenty thousand pamphlets would be distributed. He had come out to ask the British to refrain from bombing while demonstrations were in progress. All Luneburg was ablaze on Thursday. Typhoons dived low and sent rockets sizzling into trees. Flamethrowing tanks sent jets of flame spurting into enemy positions. White flags appeared at many points, but British infantry was still mopping up in some areas several hours after the armour had passed through on its way to Hamburg.

ENEMY’S FLOODING OF HOLLAND. THE MAIN CENTRES MENACED. (Rec. 6.30.) LONDON, April 19. Waters are pouring through a 300-yard gap in the Zuider Zee dyke, and threaten to flood practically the whole area north-west of the Zuider Zee. Amsterdam is itself menaced. A British United Press correspondent says: The dvke was blown up at Oosterland. Aerial observation shows water is pouring through the breach | at a great speed in the'direction of Oosthuizen, about twelve miles north of Amsterdam. Germans have blown a second gap in the Zuider Zee dyke at Wiereingen, and there is eighty square miles of North Holland, already under water. The water is inundating the country to depths of 16 feet. There is so far no indication whether the Germans warned the Dutch people before the dykes were blown up, but unless they were caught in the first wave of rushing waters, the villagers should have peen able to save themselves in the upper floors of the houses, and along the inner dykes. A Canadian engineer officer, whose job is to watch the flooding situation, commented: “If the Germans continue their flooding programme, it will take Holland ten years to recover. If the flood waters reach Amsterdam and Rotterdam, the water supply and sewerage systems will be unable to function, and there will be a disaster.” The engineer told the correspondent it was possible that the Germans’ motive was to prevent the Canadians from atte’mpting to cross the Zuider Zee causeway, in which case they might not flood the rest of North Holland; but if they did that, only a few roads would remain above water. Twenty-five per cent, of Rotterdam and Amsterdam would become uninhabitable. Great electricity plants, without which it would be impossible to operate the pumps, would be put out of action. “It needs no imagination to realise what this will mean to the people of Holland,” he said. Whether or not the Germans blow up the remaining dykes, some fifteen thousand Dutch men, women and children look like losing their homes and possessions. The Germans are now trving to sink farms from which they pillaged all the milk, meat and bread they can use. A Reuter correspondent says: About fifteen hundred Germans are holding out in Delfzijl, on the Ems Estuary. An Allied officer telephoned the'German Commander and asked him to surrender. The only reply was a stream of profanity. The German News Agency commentator, Captain Sertorious, after directing attention to unusually violent and repeated R.A.F. attacks against Heligoland, suggested that the British ,Fleet might be planning a major landing action in the rear of the German defenders of Hamburg. Paris radio said British forces entered Emden on Thursday. Mosquitoes of the R.A.F. Bomber Command attacked Berlin on Thursday night.

GERMAN SHIPS. EISENHOWER’S CALL NOT TO SCUTTLE THEM. LONDON, April 18. • A message from Supreme Allied Headquarters has asked German merchant seamen to save their ships. German shipowners and masters were told that Allied shipping would not be available to bring food to Germany. German seamen were urged not to help create starvation and chaos in Germany by scuttling their ships, or obeying the Nazi order to take them to Norway. (Rec. 9.10.) LONDON, April 20. A message from General Eisenhower was broadcast to Germany over Luxembourg radio, stating: If German seamen scuttle their ships, Germany may go short of food and medical supplies. Germany will have to rely on her own ships to transport essential supplies to her people, but Nazi fanatics will do their utmost to bring famine and chaos to Germany by putting seamen into the Volkssturm. Save yourselves and your ships.” General Eisenhower disclosed an Allied plan for using North Sea ports and all available German ships to maintain a flow of goods to Germany. He said: “North Sea ports will be opened again immediately they are taken over by the Allies. German captains and seamen will be

ordered to remain on board, and will be paid. Seamen will be authorised to form trade unions after dissolution of the Nazi Labour Front.” All German warships now in Norwegian ports will reach Sweden within a week, says a Stockholm newspaper, “Impression.” It adds that a statement to this effect was made to Swedish Navy officers by crews of a German torpedo-boat and minesweeper, which arrived in a Swedish port last Tuesday. During their official interrogation, German seamen said nearly all the German Navy men were ready to make a getaway. The London “Daily Telegraph” says: “A campaign to drive Germans from Norway is expected to be short, although resistance may be stubborn. The strength of German garrisons- in Norway has been greatly reduced. They are believed to be mainly Navy and Air Force men.

DUNKIRK ATTACKED. LONDON, April 19. To-dav’s German communique states that the Allies have begun an attack against Dunkirk. (Rec. 11.15) LONDON, April 20 A French communique announces that after five days of battle the fortresses of Royan and Point de Grave have been captured in the vicinity of Bordeaux. Ten thousand prisoners were taken. RUSH OF REFUGEES ZURICH, April 19 The Swiss Government has ordered the closure of the frontier because of rapidly accumulating masses of fugitives from Germany demanding admittance. U.S.A. CASUALTIES. LONDON, April 19. Mr. Stimson said the battle of the R'hine crossings cost the- United States 47,023 casualties. The aggregate of Army and Navy casualties is now 912,478. HITLER’S FATE. WASHINGTON, April 19. If American troops meet Hitler he Will be taken and h.eld for action by a higher authority unless he resists, said Mr. Stimson at his press conference. , Mr. Stimson had been usked if the soldiers had been instructed what to do if they discovered HUler, whether to take him. or “stick him. Mr. Stimson replied: Lou may be sure the American troops will do their full duty if such circumstances arise. COUNT VON LUCKNER. LONDON, April 19. “Bv iove, I haven’t been so happy since I ran the British blockade m loifi” said'Count Von Luckner, the raito lo the British U„« Press correspondent in The correspondent says tnat Von Luckner was trving to save the city s halfmillion people, and his home, just outside the city. He drove in a Red Cross ambulance to talk to the American commander on the render the town. The Nazis unpin,-, oned him a short time ago. Now he is virtual roller of Halle-