PATTON'S ADVANCE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 84, 8 March 1945, Page 6

PATTON'S ADVANCE

NEW PERIL FOR GERMANS. CONVERGING BRITISH ARMIES. (N.Z. Press Association. —Copyright.) (Rec. 1.15 p.m.) LONDON, Mar. 7. Tanks of the Third Army's Fourth Armoured Division reached the Rhine north-west of Cobienz at 4.45 p.m. today, 58 hours alter jumping off from the Kyll River, says Reuter's correspondent at-Gen-eral Patton's Headquarters. General Patton's Fourth Armoured Division drove 65 miles in 58 hours to reach the Rhine, doing the "last 2iJ miles in 12 hours, says the Associated Press correspondent at Third Army Headquarters. Reuter's correspondent says two other Third Army armoured divisions are also moving fast towards the Rhine against light resistance. 'lhey are the 11th, which crossed the Kyll River east ot I'fum at «*%'ii yesterday and advanced Hi miles in five and a haif hours, and the 101st, which is advancing south of the Moselle River and north of Trier. Meanwhile the First Army, maintaining its southward advances, is separated from the Third Army ■ by only 25 miles, and the position of the enemy in between these forces therefore appears somewhat perilous. The Germans ;ire fighting hard to hold what remains of their Northern Rhine bridgehead, but are steadily being forced back.