NORTH-WEST GERMANY ABLAZE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 10 April 1945, Page 5

NORTH-WEST GERMANY ABLAZE

GREAT FIRES IN CHIEF CITIES ALLIED TANKS WITHIN SIGHT OF HANOVER (Rec. 10.10a.m.) London, April 9. Reconnaissance pilots to-day reported fires blazing all over north-west Germany. There are great fires in Hanover, Brunswick, and Lubeck. One pilot said the scene was like the end of the world. Heavy German road movements northward and north-eastward were observed last night in the Emden, Schleswig, Hanover, and Brunswick areas. A total of 180 vehicles was destroyed in large convoys travelling with lights.

Reports of conflagrations in north-west Germany may indicate that the Germans in final desperation are applying the scorched earth policy by which the Russians baulked them, reports Reuter s correspondent at SHAEF. On the other hand, the flames may be merely funeral pyres of great supply dumps which are being destroyed to prevent capture by Allied tanks. The correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain reports that General Simpson’s tanks to-day captured Hildesheim and drove within sight of Hanover. The enemy on the First Army front are fleeing fast to the Elbe River. Huge columns of motor and horse-drawn transport are tonight congesting the enemy’s front-line roads in a desperate race to beat the First United States Army forces to Germany’s last river line. Our aircraft to-day spotted 400 motor transport vehicles 30 miles north of Northeim and another 1 50 or more south of Northeim, and a colossal uncountable number around Northeim itself. They will probably never get to the river in time.

The First United States Army is now within 140 miles of Berlin according to a Western Front correspondent. Infantry elements have linked with General Patton’s Third Army tanks south-west of Heiiigenstadt, 13 miles south-east of Gottingen, after other units had taken Heiiigenstadt. Armoured units thrust 18 miles from the River Weser to take Einbeck, 20 miles north of Gottingen. Tank forces drove 11 miles to reach a point within a mile of Nordheim and eight miles from Neustadt. Infantrw gained eleven miles, capturing Duderstadt, 13 miles east of Gottingen. Others advancing eight miles reached a point four miles southwest of Duderstadt. FIGHTING NEAR BREMEN The Seventn Armoured Division is fightirg in Riede. five miles south-east of Bremen’s built-up area, reports Reuter’s correspondent at Field Marshal Montgomery’s headquarters. The Eleventh Armoured Division has reached the Leine River at Niederstocken. 20 miles north-north-west of Hanover after an 11-mile advance. Sixth Airborne Division troops captured intact two bridges over the Leine and they are fighting in Neustadt. British armoured units have captured Bassum. The German News Agency states that Americans yesterday broke into the German defence* north of Essen where they checked and sealed - off the American offensive towards Dortmund, and also made slight headway in fierce street fighting going on in Rauxel. eight miles north of Dortmund. CANADIAN ADVANCE Canadian tanks and infantry are moving forward along the whole front, according to correspondents at Field Marshal Montgomery’s headquarters. Vanguards thrusting along the Almelo-De-ventcr main road are now four to five miles east of Deventer, which is a key road and rail hub on routes to Holland and 20 miles from the Zuider Zee. Canadian armoured forces have linked-up with airborne troops dropped north of Zwolle. Resistance on the centre and left on the Twenty-first Army Group front shows signs of cracking under pressure from the Guards Armoured Division and Canadian tanks. French First Army troops pushing south up the Rhine Valley began a manoeuvre to outflank Siegfried Line positions around Rasstatt. They farther eastward captured £auffen and Brackenheim five and six miles respectively outh-west of Heilbronn