ALLIED ADVANCES ON BOTH FLANKS

Grey River Argus, 23 April 1945, Page 5

ALLIED ADVANCES ON BOTH FLANKS

DANUBE REACHED, & ELBE HOLD EXTENDED

A LINK-UP WITH RUSSIANS IMMINENT

(Rec. 12.40.) LONDON, April 22. To-day’s communique from bu-. preme Headquarters says: -klnect forces north-west of Amersfooi t , reached the line of the E.E.M. rwer; (an unnamed river, running thiou o n Amersfoort), entered Pependurg, and, enlarged the bridgehead across the | Kusten Canal despite strenuous opposition. We closed on Zeven and Ro tenburg and repulsed a counter-at-tack in the vicinity of Elsdoif, mop ping up wooded areas west of L ne bU \Vest of Wittenberge in the Gar- I tower Forest, we gained JWard , sevep miles and captured Fie zeHe t north-east of Brunswick _ We pocketed the enemy force which counte. attacked on Thursday, and retook Diesdorf and Abbendorf. Cur forces in the Harz pocket captured Blankepdurg. All organised resistance in the pocket has ceased. Enemy swimmers failed m an attempt to blow up a bridge leading to the bridgehead across the Elbe River. Some swimmers were captured. Our armoured forces entered Dessau cleared Bobbausteinfurth and Woifen, and entered Jessnitz and Greppin two miles south of Jessenitz, against stiff resistance. We are fighting in Bitterfeld. . Armoured forces occupied Krostitz, seven miles north-north-east of Leip- | siz, and are mopping up along the | Mulde River. J A In Czechoslovakia we cleared As, and we reached a point five miles north of the town, drove south, and entered Schurnding, and cleared Arzberg, ten and eleven miles respectively south of As. We cleared Fuchsmuhl and Erben-| dorf, ten and fifteen miles respectively south-south-west of Arzberg, and I Pressath, twelve miles north-west of Wieden: We have completed mopping up in Nuremberg and liberated more than 14,000 Allied prisoners when we cleared a concentration camp area. Armoured units reached Boffingen, IS miles south of Rothenburg. We captured Crailsheim, from which we withdrew two weeks ago, and made further gains southward. We closed the gap in the ring around Stuttgart to less than four miles. We are approaching Kirchheim and Unterensingen, four miles west of Kirchheim. We took a score of towns in the area and reached Esslingen. We thrust eighteen miles toward Donaueschingen, and took Tuttlingen and Mulheim. s Farther east we have captured several more towns in the Black Forest and reached Brelsach, on the Rhine Plain, after a five-miles gain. We took prisoner over 11,000 between the Rhine and Nuremberg. STUTTGART ENCIRCLED. IMPORTANT FRENCH AND AMERICAN ADVANCES. (Rec. 6.30.) LONDON, April 21. The southern part of the Western Front has again sprung into great activity. The important city of Stuttgart, with a population of nearly half a million, has been rapidly encircled by fast-moving tank thrusts. Correspondents report the encirclement of Stuttgart from the southwest by the French. American forces took Ohmben, la , miles south-east of the city. I The Black Forest area is also in , danger of being- cut off by an Allied I advance towards the Swiss frontier west of Lake Constance. Nuremberg, which had a population of well over 400,000, has been taken, and American forces are pres- , sing south-eastward between there I and the Czech frontier. The way is thus being prepared for an advance on Munich from both the north and the west. 8011, twenty miles south of Nuremberg was occupied after a stiff battle. To the south-west of Stuttgart, a broad wedge was pushed twenty miles to Rottweil north of the Swiss-German border, and more than 25 towns were taken. Gains of up to five miles were made, southwards in the Black Forest, and north'of Donglingen. FRENCH OCCUPY STUTTGART. AND REACH THE DANUBE. (Rec. 9.40). LONDON, April 22. French troops occupied Stuttgart and Freiburg. Other French troops crossed the Danube at the approaches to Sigmaringen, reaching the Swiss border. General De Tassigny, announced that his troops are along the Danube over a stretch of 37 miles. AMERICANS REACH THE DANUBE (Rec. 39.50. LONDON, April 22. Heavy fighting is going on at Dessau, where American forces are nearest to the Russian forces, who are advancing around the south of Berlin. Two American armoured task forces, advancing south along the J Rhine, are reported to have captured Donaueschingen, on the upper Danube,, says Reuter’s Zurich correspondent. Gunfire can be heard from the Swiss border., FRENCH CONQUER GIRONDE ESTUARY. (Rec. 8.50.) LONDON, April 21. On the French Atlantic coast, all resistance in the' Gironde Estuary j pocket ceased. . ! Another 65,000 prisoners have been taken on the whole Western i Front. GENERAL DE GAULLE’S NIECE LIBERATED. (Rec. 9.30). LONDON, April 22. General De Gaulle’s niece, Genevieve De Gaulle, has reached Switzer-. land from Germany. She was arrested in occupied France and carried off to Germany on April 10, 1943. A “Dailv Express” correspondent stated: “Thousands of inmates of the Belsen concentration camp who were strong enough to stand, hooted and bayed like animals when British lorries drove off with four hundred fully-armed, well-fed German guards who, under the terms of the truce, will be returned to the German lines. The truce stipulated that the guards should be returned to their fines within a week of the liberation of this stinking plague city. There has never, in this war, been such a scene. We are transporting the guards to the other side of the front fine, and within a few days they will be skilfully' employed in killing our troops. As the lorries left smoke rose from hundreds of little fires which were cooking potatoes and other scraps of food for the shrivelled animals who once were human beings." ENEMY FEARS IN NORWAY. (Rec. 7.10). LONDON, April 22. Oslo radio states that the German commander issued a warning to people that military areas in the Jilo and Aker districts of Norway are being mined.