A COMPLETE ROUT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25800, 22 March 1945, Page 5

A COMPLETE ROUT

GERMANS BEWILDERED CHAOS AMONG TROOPS LONDON, Mar. 20. The defeat of the Germans in the Saar is a complete rout, stated the Daily Telegraph correspondent. The German First Army and v part of the Secorid Army are confused and bewildered, rushing blindly to the Rhine between Mainz and Ludwigshafen. They are trying to : race ■ General • Patton’s armour, which is engulfing town after ■- town.

Roads, country lanes, forests, and woods are choked with men and vehicles of all types trying to extricate themselves from'the catastrophe which has overtaken them in the short space, of six days. Our tanks, doubling back cn their tracks and going first east, then south, have cut off great pockets of Germans.

The confusion among these scattered units is chaotic. There is no resistance. They have only one thought now—escape. Thousands are cut off and do not know it. German columns at night time are throwing all caution to the winds, and plough along the roads with headlights full on, and at dusk our .night fighters take over where the day fighters left off. There is no searching for' targets now. Convoys are being caught at every point by fighters operating with complete impunity at tfee-top level. Reuter’s correspondent with the Seventh Army says General Patch’s men are now fighting everywhere on German soil. In the western area the Sixty-third Division, which yesterday breached the Siegfried Line in the vicinity of Heckendalheim, five miles east of Saarbrucken, has now torn a new 400-yard gap and is through the main defences and out the other side. En route they knocked out 40 interlocking pillboxes. In the meantime the Third Army before Zweibrucken, 15 miles east of Saarbrucken, is now rolling up emplacements and after driving through two rows of dragons’ teeth and pillboxes is working on the third and last row in the Hardt Mountains. Further advances of several miles’ were made north-west of Wissembourg, which is now occupied.

The Exchange Telegraph correspondent describes the crossing of the Lauter River by sharprshooters of a famous African Infantry Division. The men waded neckr-deep in the water in face of concentrated enemy fire and captured a small town on the other side. German x-esistance slackened when they realised that the French had established themselves across the river.

The Germans have stepped up their artillery fire across the Rhine against Allied positions in the Rheinberg area, cable Agency correspondents at Fieldmarshal Montgomery’s headquarters. They say that a German patrol made a dash across the river ;a.t dawn, but was forced to withdraw

The Germans have shifted the weight of their anti-aircraft guns from the Ruhr district to the Rhine. Second Tactical Air Force planes, which flew over 1500 sorties yesterday, reported huge concentrations of anti-aircraft guns in and arourid Wesel. ■ Reuter’s correspondent, commenting on the destruction of German transport, says German resources are reaching their end. It. is doubtful how far they can recover from yesterday’s losses,.. . ....

The Tactical Air Force claimed that it destroyed 20 locomotives and damaged 18, destroyed 403 and damaged 493 railway trucks, destroyed 148 and damaged 91 road transports. The United States Ninth Air Force claimed the destruction of a large number of road transports, .35 armoured vehicles, 121 locomotives, and 1222 railway trucks.- - - . 'i - ■’ -