THE OCCUPATION

Grey River Argus, 17 May 1945, Page 2

THE OCCUPATION

ALLIES’ FOUR MILLION PRISONERS.

8.0.W. RUGBY, May 15. Over four million Germans have been made prisoners by British and Americans since the Battle of Alamein, said the Secretary of War (Sir J. Griggs) in the Commons. From November, 1942, to April, 1945, they totally destroyed some hundred German divisions. The number of divisions they engaged or tied down during this period varied considerably. In January, 1945, it was 120 plus. It was estimated at the beginning of this year that 180,000 British Commonwealth prisoners were in German hands. May 14, 116.000 had been evacuated from the area controlled by S.H.A.E.F., about 1,000 from Italy, and about 4,000 through Odessa. Reports are awaited of numbers of Allied prisoners liberated by the Soviet forces. One hundred American Flying Fortresses, today, flew about 3,000 Allied prisoners of war from Germany. General Patton’s troops captured Ernst Kalten Brunner, Himmler’s deputy, and possibly the most important Nazi next to Goering yet taken by the Allies. Kalten Brunner was surprised and trapped in _a mountain hide-out in the lyrol. He is probably the only man knowing where Plimmler is. , , , Himmler’s wife and daughter have been captured in the Austrian lyrol by Allied troops.