SMASHING FORWARD

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 9 April 1945, Page 5

SMASHING FORWARD

SIXTH AIRBORNE DIVISION

(Rec. 10.0 a.m.) LPndon, Apl. 8. The British spearhead into Germany leapt forward another 25 miles on Sunday when the Sixth Airborne Division smashed forward from the Weser River at Petershagen to the Leine River over which they have established a bridgehead, states a correspondent with the airborne forces.

A correspondent with the 21st Army Group says Seventh Armoured Division tanks pushed northwards along the Hanover-Bremen road and have taken the village of Syke, some 12 miles from Bremen suburbs.

The correspondent says British armour and armour-supported columns are within shelling distance of Bremen and Hanover and have now driven a wedge between these two cities. All road and rail communications between the two places have already been vut west of the Weser River or are under control of our spearheads. ,

The speed of Field Marshal Montgomery’s drive during the past 24 hours has accelerated, and the plans of a much wider scope 'for the advance into west Germany are becoming clearer. The straight non-stop drive in a north-easterly direction would bring Field Marshal Montgomery’s tanks to the Elbe, the last barrier before Berlin.

“It is simply a Cook’s tour through Germany.” says the British United PreU correspondent with the First Army. “The whole of the German d:fence along the Weser and its southern branches has completely crumpled.” GERMAN COMMENT

German military commentators have been making a guess as to the Allies’ immediate military objectives. A Stockholm correspondent quotes them as saying that the Second British Army and