LATEST COMMUNIQUE

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVII, Issue 23181, 20 April 1945, Page 5

LATEST COMMUNIQUE

(12.42 a.m.) LONDON, April 19. To-day's communique from Supreme Allied Headquarters says: All organised resistance in the Ruhr pocket has ceased. The Allies virtually have completed the mopping up of the last enemy stragglers. Our forces advancing from Arnhem occupied Wagenlngen, 10 miles west of Arnhem and reached the Zuider Zee north of Barneveld. The enemy is offering stiff resistance west of the Ems River mouth and around the bridgehead across the Kusten Canal. We captured Verden arid Soltau and advanced 10 miles north of Scheverdingen and have almost cleared Uelzen. We advanced to the outskirts of Luneburg and reached Rosche, eight miles east of Luneburg. Our forces cleared Magdeburg west of the Elbe. Tanks arid infantry entered Leipzig and reached the west bank Of the Elster Canal. Infantry gained upwards of 12 miles on a 14-mile front in the Zwickau area and cleared Lengenfeld and Zwickau. We cleared Treuen and reached Wildenfels, six miles southeast of Le Genfeld. Patrols crossed the Czechoslovakian border and (reached Gottmansgrun, 10 miles east of Hof. We entered Schaarzenbach and Weissenstadt. Our units which entered Nuremberg from the north and east have joined up. Elements drove into the city from the south. Resistance decreased as we knocked out enemy gun positions. We captured the suburb of Furth, four miles from the centre of the city and the nearby airfield. We reached Schwand, 11 miles south of Nuremberg and almost cleared Ansbach We reached Horb, and captured Freudenstadt and advanced a further five miles. Units in the Rhine Plain pushed as far south as Dingligen. Enemy resistance at Okerkirch has been overcome. We silenced the long-range guns firing on Strasbourg. Our forces cleared the entire north side of the Gironde Estuary and the attack on the southern side of the Gironde Estuary pushed the enemy to the last defensive position on the Verdon Plain. The Allies on Tuesday took 37,247 prisoners.