ENEMY DEFENCES CRUMBLE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25798, 20 March 1945, Page 5

ENEMY DEFENCES CRUMBLE

CONFUSION SPREADING SIGNS OF GENERAL RETREAT (United Press Association) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Rec. 1 a.m.) LONDON, Mar. 19. The German defences in the Saar Palatinate are crumbling beneath the weight and speed of the Third Army’s thrusts. General Patton’s tanks and "motorised infantry are driving forward fast against disorganised resistance. One spearhead has entered the key stronghold of St. Wendel, a big communications centre, north of Saarbrucken and west of Kaiserlautern. Confusion is spreading in the Saar-Moselle-Rhine triangle, and there are signs of a general withdrawal towards the Rhine. “ Generals Patton and Patch are carving deeper into the 6000 square miles of unoccupied Germany left west of the Rhine, where 16 to 20 German divisions are making their last stand,” says a correspondent at Allied headquarters. “A security time lag has been imposed on the issue of news on this front, but the German News Agency reports that Third Army forces have established bridgeheads across the Nahe River between Krueznach and Sobernheim. Seventh Army forces are attacking strongly south of Hornbach.” The Times correspondent says confusion and chaos are rife in the area bounded by the converging thrusts of the Third Army, which is displaying superb team work by armour, infantry, artillery, and tactical planes. The Third Army has been operational on 230 days, in which it has captured 230,000 prisoners and knocked out more than 2000 tanks. Heavy German tanks look and are formidable monsters, but lack the speed and power-operated turret of the Americans, whose gunners are able to maintain fire againt a target even as they move.

The Exchange Telegraph’s correspondent says Allied troops control the nine-mile stretch of the Cologne-Frankfurt autobahn from the point where the Wied River crosses the road to Russcheild four miles east of Nieder-Dollendorf, which the First Army captured on the Rhine, a mile and a-quarter above Konigswinter. General Hodges’s forces in the southern sector of the bridgehead control more than a five-mile stretch of the Wied River.

Reuter’s correspondent at Allied headquarters says the Third Army forces along the Nahe River in many sectors reached Kirn on the north bank, halfway between the Rhine and the Saar. The Germans had abandoned tanks and selfpropelled guns intact. General Eisenhower yesterday visited General Patton’s forces in the Saar and Moselle sectors. He watched the operations and received first-hand reports.