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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 13 April 1945, Page 6

STOP PRESS

ADVANCE INTO GERMANY LONDON, April 12.—1 t is reported from French sources but not confirmed that the Allies have dropped airborne troops 20 miles outside Berlin in the vicinity of Brandenburg. Americans to-day advanced 13 miles into the Ruhr pocket, says Reuter’s correspondent with .the First Army. The Germans hold only two-fifths of the original pocket. American spearheads tonight were less than 30 miles from Leipzjg after crossing the Saale River on a 30-mile front from Jena io Naumberg, says correspondents with the First and Third Armies. Jena itself, which is the home of the German optical industry, has been by-passed on the north and on the south. Third Army infantry which marched into Weimar found at least one-third of the city smashed to the ground. Among thejruins is what remains of the building in which the German Republican Constitution was adopted in 1919. Most of the city’s famous landmarks havs been destroyed. The speed of General Patton's latest advance was revealed when the Americans captured a high ranking German officer who had been sent from Berlin in order to stop the rot on this front. He.frankly admitted that he had no idea that American tanks were so close. It is now almost certain that the Germans are moving masses of men and equipment as quickly as they can to what has become known as Hitler’s redoubt in the Bavarian Alps area, says the British United Press correspondent at Supreme Headquarters. Fighters spotted considerable movements on the road to the redoubt through Leipzig, and the Germans are reported to be moving from Austria towards BercHfesgaden. CHILE AT WAR WITH JAPAN NEW YORK, April 12.—Chile has declared war on Japan. POLITICAL PRISONERS FREED LONDON, April 12.—The Sixth Armoured Division overran a concentration camp at Ettersburg, north-east of Erfurt, holding,2l,ooo political prisThere was one day's food supply left in the camp.