DEFENDING PORTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25177, 14 April 1945, Page 8

DEFENDING PORTS

® BREMEN AND HAMBURG GERMANS DETERMINED NO SIGNS OF BREAKING 'flßecd. 5.35 p.m.) LONDON, April 12 There is no sign of a break-up by the Germans holding on in the north, says a correspondent wich thb Brit- _ ish forces in Germany, and it is becoming obvious that they intend to try to hang on to Bremen and Hamburg in (he same way as they clung to the French Atlantic ports and Dunkirk. The enemy has been contesting every inch of ground at Bremen, and at some points has been counter-attacking. Another correspondent says the present trend of the battle for North-west German points to the attempted fixing of a North Sea protection line, which may be only a temporary holding device while priorities are evacuated from the coastal area. It will run roughly from the Weser River to Bremen, Oldenburg and Emden, using Bremen, already strongly reinforced, as a pivot.

To hold this line, the enemy has five or six divisions, including elements of tTvo parachute divisions and the 15th Panzer Grenadiers, reinforced by garrison troops from Denmark and other

places. The vital junction town of Celle, 65 miles south of Hamburg and 130 miles from Berlin, was stormed by the 15th Scottish Division after columns had fought their way through the Fuhrberg Forest. Celle was formerly the principal German Army gas training school. Troops of the 51 st Highland Division pushed back German paratroops in the centre of the British Second Army front to take Lohne, a traffic centre southeast of Cloppenburg. Canadian troops in Holland have enlarged their bridgehead across the Yssel. It is now about two miles deep and three and a-half miles wide. They are six miles from Apelrloorn at the furthest point of penetration. A Canadian column, driving at top speed across North-eastern Holland, advanced 22 miles in 15 hours, reaching Beilin and liberating about 30 Dutch towns and villages, says a Canadian correspondent, This division's great sweep has brought it alongside the Polish armoured division driving northward between the Canadians and the Ems River. PRISONERS SUFFER AMERICANS IN GERMANY "DELIBERATE NEGLECT" Washington, April 12 . War and State Departments have jointly issued a statement saying that 70,000 American prisoners of war arcbeing held in Germany's interior under deplorable conditions of deliberate neglect, indifference and cruelty. The statement added that these conditions were largely due to Germany's fanatical determination to continue the hopeless war, with resultant disintegration under a disastrous military defeat. The United States Government, in cooperation with the Swiss Government and the Bed Cross, is doing everything to get'food supplies to these men. The statement pointed out that the Allied armies overran 27 of 78 prison camps, and these advances liberated 15,000 Americans, but the Nazis hastily removed .'16.000 American prisoners into the German interior, where 31.000 others were already held. The German Government had made little or no preparation to provide food, shelter and medical care for the prisoners, who were marched long distances under extreme weather conditions. The statement also said that the American nation would not forget these atrocities. "It is our relentless purpose that the perpetrators of such heinous crimes will be brought to justice." THREAT TO NUREMBERG AMERICANS NEAR BAMBERG (Eecd. 6.30 p.m.) LONDON, April J3 American Seventh Army troops, advancing rapidly, were last reported five or six miles from Bamberg, which means they are now threatening Nuremberg directly from the north." Heilbronn has fallen to the Seventh Army after nine'days of fighting. French First Army forces have taken Rastatt and Baden-Baden, states a special communique quoted by the Paris radio. ) .. BERLIN BOMBED AGAIN (E " d ' 610 P-m.) LONDON, April 13 '«++! • M ° s <lH itoes made three more attacks on Berlin last night.