British 2nd. Army. Phantom Force Of Western Front

Northern Advocate, 14 March 1945, Page 6

British 2nd. Army. Phantom Force Of Western Front

(Rec. 3.15 p.m.)

LONDON, Mar. 13.

Field-Marshal Montgomei*y’s British 2nd Army has becorfie the phantom force of the Western Front. Everyone is asking its whereabouts and what its future role will be, says the British United Press correspondent with the British forces. .

“I have been visiting some of the units and found them, ready for the word of command to begin the next battles which everyone hopes will be the final blow against Rundstedt’s last ditches.

“ ‘We expect to be in'at the death blow against the Hun on the other side of the Rhine,’ declared the men of the 2nd Army, which now claims to be the most mobile fighting force on the Western Front, following recent lightning switches such as the' rush into the Ardennes and support given to the Canadian Ist Army by some 2nd Army divisions. The 2nd Army’s artillery is of terrific strength, and Field-Marshal Montgomery will be able to call on the biggest ever gun barrage when the time is ripe to give the Wehrmacht the mightiest lead of metal it has ever received.

“'Gunners said: ‘That ought to put paid to the last wavering Nazis who doubt whether- they have lost the war or not.’ ” German Nervousness Increased German nervousness has become more apparent in the past 24 hours along the entire Rhine front Duisburg northward, states Reuter’s correspondent at 21st Army Group headquarters. He added that the first Germans to break the lull were a suicide party of 36 with one officer and one artillery officer who ferried across the Rhine on the night of March 10 and infiltrated into the positions of the American 9th Army in Duisburg area. Nineteen of the party have been captured.

Farther north Canadian Ist Army forces are mopping up Germans left behind in a factory near Xanten.

Considerable movements of Germans have been observed in northern Holland lately, possibly due to regrouping to meet Allied threats.

Keitel, in a special order issued a few days ago, warned German troops that self-mutilation to avoid duty at the front was punishable on the spot by shooting. Another captured order signed by Colonel-General Blaskowtz, warned stragglers that they were liable to be shot after summary trial by mobile court-martial.