SAAR PALATINATE

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

SAAR PALATINATE

GENERAL EXODUS INDICATED PILOTS REPORT TURMOIL (Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, Mar. 19. Owing to the Seventh Army’s rapid advance the .first Tactical Air Force, which yesterday flew more than 1500 sorties, abandoned close support of front-line troops and instead attacked targets in the area bounded by Kaiseriautern, Homburg, 15 miles north of Saarbrucken, Pirmasens, 22 miles south-east of Saarbrucken, and Neusays Reuter’s correspondent. Pilots reported utter turmoil and chaos throughout the area, with the roads packed with military personnel mingled with thousands of scurrying civilian refugees who waved sheets to plead that they should not be bombed. The overall picture indicated a general exodus.

Air Marshal Coning'nam’s Tactical Air Force yesterday hammered towns immediately behind the German defences facing the British and Canadian armies, says Reuter’s correspondent with the Tactical Air Force. The principal targets were Borken and Bocholt. Despite the bad weather, the air marshal is committing his forces more and more against front-line Rhineland objectives. Tactical and strategical patterns are slowly being merged, and the German supply . position in Holland is so desperate that Spitfires over the Vbomb sites have reported that an important bridge south-east of Utrecht was undefended by flak. Instances of the removal of flak batteries to the Reich are becoming more frequent. There is every sign of a tremendous increase in air activity when the weather breaks. Even yesterday, despite the clinging haze, the Tactical Air Force flew over 300 sorties. Spitfires, bombing two communication points in Northern Holland this afternoon, discovered anti-aircraft guns to be missing from targets usually protected by them, indicating a withdrawal of these weapons in line with the reduction of the enemy holding forces in Northern Holland. This reduction has been taking place in the past two months, says a correspondent. Spitfires yesterday made 16 railcuts in V-supply routes to Northern Holland, plainly around Utrecht, Rotterdam, and The Hague.