THIRD ARMY DRIVE

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

THIRD ARMY DRIVE

SURRENDER OF WEIMAR CITY PARTLY IN RUINS (Reed. 5.35 p.m.) LONDON, April 13 Third Army infantry which marched into Weimar found at least one-third of the city smashed to the ground. Among the ruins is what remains of the building in which the German Republican Constitution was adopted in 1919. Most of the city's famous landmarks have been destroyed. A German courier on a bicycle offered the surrender of Wiemar to the Americans on the outskirts of the city. The Americans paraded into Wiemar at 10:30. a.m., but most of the population did not see the parade. They deliberately turned their backs on the Americans and glared sullenly at the ground. The Third Army has also captured Neustadt, eight miles north-east of Coburg. Reuter's correspondent at Supreme Headquarters says General Patton's 11th Armoured Division is 26 miles frdm Bayreuth. The Associated Press correspondent says General Patton's present stabs, details of which are still covered by the blackout on news, are like the previous ones —sudden, swift and sensational. The speed of General Patton's latest advance was revealed when Americans captured a high-ranking German officer v\'hc had been sent from Berlin in order to stop the rot on this front. He frankly admitted he had no idea that American tanks were so close. RUHR POCKET

RESISTANCE COLLAPSING

80,000 PRISONERS TAKEN (Reed. 11.10 p.m.) LONDON, April 13 In the Ruhr pocket German resistance is collapsing. Eighty thousand prisoners have been taken there already. The only stubborn opposition is in the Dortmund area. American forces today advanced I .'5 miles into the Ruhr pocket, says Renter's* correspondent with the First Army. The Germans hold only twofifths of the original pocket. TERRIFIC DESTRUCTION ESSEN A MASS OF DEBRIS LONDON, April 12 It will take several years simply to clear up the wreckage in Essen, says tjie Daily Express correspondent there. "The vast Krupps industrial empire is reduced to sticks," he says. "Every house for miles is damaged and whole factories give the appearance of having been lifted bodily by bombs and flung to the earth in a mass of debris. Some are still smouldering and piles of rubble still suddenly hurst into flame. Great roofless factories house not a ■single piece of machinery. ' thousands of workers generallv appeared friendly, and small boys chased our jeep crying,_ 'Chocolate."' Every street was lined with white flags. Thousands of tons of rubble line the streets and a strange calm hangs over the city. Essen, like Mnnchen-Gladbach, Hanover and Minister, has been irredeemably destroyed." PRISONERS FRIEED HUGE CONCENTRATION CAMP LONDON, April 12 l'liq Gtb Armoured Division of the American Third Army overran a concentration camp at Ettersburg, northeast of Erfurt, holding 21,000 political prisoners. There was one day's food supply left in the camp The Ninth Army, on Friday |a<t.. near Soest, freed 1000 French officers, who for more than five years bad bopti held in German prison camps. Two huiir drerl Russian soldiers were liberated from the same camp. AIRBORNE LANDING REPORTED OUTSIDE BERLIN LONDON, April 12 It is reported from French sources, but not yet confirmed, that the Allies have dropped airborne troops 20 miles outside Berlin in the vicinity of Brandenburg. ART TREASURES FOUND LONDON. April 12 American troops at Mercedes, south of Gotha. uncovered a second great cache of German art treasures. Cataloguing has just begun, but it is believed the collection surpasses in value any store so far discovered. The collection is believed to include virtually all treasures stored for safekeeping from publio and private museums in Berlin.