COLOGNE FALLS TO 1st ARMY

Northern Advocate, 7 March 1945, Page 3

COLOGNE FALLS TO Ist ARMY

Most Civilians Friendly, Even Glad Of Allied Troops' Advent (Received 1 p.m.) LONDON, March 6.

IT IS OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED AT IST ARMY HEADS QUARTERS THAT COLOGNE HAS BEEN CAPTURED. Sporadic resistance continues in the southern outskirts of the Rhineland capital. Giving- a picture of Cologne tonight, Reuter’s correspondent inside the city says about 150,000 civilians remain in the city. Many seem to be men of military age, and the fact that General Hodges’ troops have found a number of abandoned uniforms suggests that they actually are Wehrmacht or Volkssturm soldiers. All civilians are confined to their houses except for the purposes of getting food and water. The usual Allied proclamations are being posted throughout the city. Civilians must hand in cameras, radio sets and arms. Anybody found on the streets after dark is liable to be shot. Most civilians seem friendly, even glad, that Allied troops have arrived. Some are frightened and mutter: ‘‘Not Nazi.”

Complete Capitulation “Many rail bridges over the main roads have been left intact, which, if blown up would have blocked the roads with rubble and hampered the Americans’ progress, says the correspondent. "The Germans were expected to make some sort of stand where a green belt' bordering the Ringstrasse separates the outer from the inner city, but there were no prepared positions and no resistance." American tanks went on to cross the huge marshalling yards north-west of the city. The air forces had hammered these yards, and the surrounding houses are nothing but burnt-out, blackened shells amid areas of desolation.

“I was amazed to see the difference between the out parts of the city, which is residential, and the utter shambles of the industrial area.” Massed Germans Bombed Mosquitoes this afternoon escorted by Mustangs attacked troops, armour and transport crowded in the devastated town of Wesel on the east bank of the Rhine. Numbers of Germans with their equipment are moving back across the Rhine at this point and many hundreds of vehicles are on the roads. It is officially estimated that 85 per rent of Cologne was flattened by the 40.000 ions of bombs dropped by the R.A.F. and Americans since the first raid in May, 1940. Observers who have seen Stalingrad say that the devastation of Cologne was even worse. A British United Press correspondent says air photographs show' the Hohenzollern bridge sinking into the river after the recent bombings and explosions. Late reports tonight place the armoured forces of the American 3rd Army 20 miles from the Rhine at an undisclosed point, after an advance of 32 miles since yesterday morning. Ear- * tier reports said the 3rd Army forces were 25 miles north-east of Bitburg, 28 miles from the Rhine. The Associated Press correspondent with the 3rd Army stated that the Americans captured a corps commander and his staff, took some thousands of prisoners, and liberated a great

number of British and French prisoners whom the Germans abandoned in their disordered retreat. On British Sector

British and Canadian troops continue to make progress in reducing the bridgehead west and south-west of Wesel, says a correspondent at Supreme Headquarters south-east of Cologne. Our forces continue to advance fast to within four miles of the Rhine. One column is within six miles of Bonn and armoured forces have cleared six villages in their 8000-yards’ advance cast of Erskichen. In the Gcmund area we crossed the Olef Bivcr.

Heavy fighting continues on the 3rd Ai'my’s sector, where our troops reached the Kyll River on a 30-miles’ front. Our bridgehead over the river is 10 miles long despite numerous counterattacks.

The Canadian Ist Army has increased pressure against the German Rhine ferry crossings, report front-line correspondents. The Canadians fought their way into Sonsbeck, where they are meeting stiff resistance and have tightened the ring around the Xanten crossing. Xanten is under heavy shellfire. British troops entered Wardt on the Rhine bank. Other British forces pushed half-way through Bonninghardt Forest. An advance of three miles was made up the Wesel road from Issum. The major part of rearguard actions are being fought by German paratroopers. They are the same troops who fought stubbornly beyond the Reichwald.