CZECH BORDER CROSSED

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

CZECH BORDER CROSSED

I Germany Cut Into Iwo Parts Canadians At Zuider Zee By Telegraph—N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright LONDON, April 18. General Patton’s 90th Division entered Czechoslovakia at 9.55 a.m. to-day north-west of As, after a dash of eight miles from Hof, says a correspondent with the Third Army. The last lap of the drive which cut Germany into two parts was made without opposition, except for a brief flurry of gunfire in a village a mile from the border. Thirty-five Germans surrendered theye, after firing token shots. The Americans ran into brisk fire after crossing the border near Gottmannsgrun, six miles north-west of the extreme tip of Czechoslovakia, but they penetrated two miles. As soon as the border was crossed, infantrymen, who rode on the top of the tanks ceremoniously erected a sign, reading: “Now you are entering Czechoslovakia by courtesy of the Third Battalion, 358th Infantry.” Somebody added the postscript: “Now you may fraternise by courtesy of the same outfit.” The correspondent of the Exchange Telegraph Agency with the First Army says that Dusseldorf has been captured. The battle for Nuremberg is proving tough, says Reuter's correspondent. The Seventh Army entered the city last Monday night, but the defenders, who are believed to number from 5000 to 10.000, are fighting back stubbornly, with heavy artillery, mortars and bazookas. The Ruhr pocket so far has yielded 309,484 prisoners—more than twice the original estimate. It is officially stated that 50,000 remain to be rounded up. Nuremberg in Ruins The political capital of Hitlerism was ripped from the pages of Nazi history to-day and since noon the Stars and Stripes have been flying above the rostrum where Hitler used to address great rallies of the party, says the correspondent of the “Daily Mail” in a message from Nuremberg. The Americans are within a mile of the centre of the city. All S.S. troops have gone, leaving behind only snipers and the Volkssturm, with orders to fight to the last. Nuremberg has been reduced to rubble, with fires raging in the western suburbs. The Germans are adding to the destruction by shelling Hitler’s "sacred” arena. Little remains of the grandstands but stumps of concrete. The Seventh Army announced the capture of its 250,000 th prisoner since the landings in the South of France. The German News Agency says that the Nazi Party Congress Hall at Nuremberg is aflame. The Americans, after nine attacks, penetrated the Party Congress grounds. Zuider Zee Reached Canadian armour has reached the south side of the Zuider Zee northwest of Putten, cables a correspondent at Field-Marshal Montgomery’s Headquarters. Control of the east end of the causeway north of the inland sea completes the bisection of enemy forces left in Holland. The Canadians also hold almost the entire north of the coast of Holland opposite the Frisian Islands from a point westward from the Ems Estuary. The 11th Armoured Division is reported to have reached the outskirts of Luneberg, eight to nine miles form the Elbe and 18 miles south of Hamburg. Columns of the Sixth Airborne Division are 11 miles east of Ulzen. Correspondents with the Canadians say that General Crerar’s forces were 25 miles from Amsterdam on Wednesday night in their drive into Western Holland. Closing in on Darderwijk, from which port enemy troops have been escaping in fishing boats across the Zuider Zee, armoured units are only five miles away. In the north other armoured units are battling against the defensive line around Emden.

The Germans are scorching the towns in the path of the great British armoured thrusts which are to-night threatening Hamburg from only 17 or 18 miles to the south and south-east, says a correspondent at Field-Marshal Montgomery’s Headquarters. Only a patch of resistance lies ahead of the Seventh and 11th Armoured Divisions advancing over an increasingly wide area of the Luneberg plain. The Seventh Armoured Division thrust forward three or four miles and captured Kampen, 10 miles south of the Bremen-Hamburg autobahn. The 11th Armoured Division, after advancing eight miles, is now on the outskirts of Luneberg and only eight miles from the Elbe River, but heavy resistance is expected in Luneberg itself. Magdeburg Falls All the ancient city of Magdeburg lying west of the Elbe River fell into the hands of the Ninth Army to-day after flame-throwing tanks had burnt the last fanatical members of Hitler youth from rat holes, reports the Associated Press correspondent of America. Rothishorn Island, which divides the Elbe opposite the city, is still in the hands of the Germans. The enemy blew up a highway bridge across the river, but according to late reports the railway bridge is still intact. It is expected to be blown up at any moment. Magdeburg is nothing but a heap>of rubble, not a single building standing undamaged. It is another ghastly monument to the devastation of the Allied air power. As the Americans fought their way through the streets civilians came out of cellars and rushed for water. The bombing had knocked out the electrical

equipment operating the water supply and the people were crazed with thirst. An operational boundary line has been drawn through Germany between the American and Russian forces, beyond which neither side presumably will advance, reports a correspondent of the British United Press at Supreme Allied Headquarters. It cannot be stated whether General Bradley’s forces are already inside the Czechoslovakia line or whether it is somewhere east of the Mulde River, but it seems certain that his 12th Army Group will be given the task of destroying the German armies before they reach the southern redoubt. Our pilots have reported thousands of German vehicles heading south in the last fortnight. Forces of the Third United States Army to-day crossed the Czechoslovak border in great strength. Correspondents at General G. S. Patton’s headquarters were allowed to send out one flash reporting this major crossing of the border before the security silence was imposed. The Americans have captured undamaged Germany’s largest synthetic rubber plant at Schkopau, south of Halle, which, until three days ago, was turning out 6000 tons of synthetic rubber a month, says a correspondent of the British United Press with the First Army. The plant, which covers four square miles and employed ,15,000 workers, could be in motion at a moment’s notice if raw materials were available. The director, whom the correspondent found hiding from the slave workers, said the Allied air forces had bombed the plant five times but caused little damage. The correspondent of the Associated Press of America on the Western Front reports that the Americans captured the German Army’s casualty clearing office at Saalfeld, In which they found millions of casualty wards, Including Rommel’s His death was attributed to heart failure on October 14 last.