Eleven Miles From Austrian Frontier

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVII, Issue 23186, 27 April 1945, Page 5

Eleven Miles From Austrian Frontier

Third Army Across Danube

Brit bh Fighting In Centra! Bremen

By Telegraph—N.Z Press Assn Copvrlsh (Received 11 p.m.) LONDON, April 26.

IN their drive towards Hitler’s Bavarian redoubt, an armoured column of the United States Third Army has advanced to within 11 miles of the Austrian frontier after a further advance of six miles. German forces were observed massing around the frontier town of Passau on the direct route to Linz. Other elements of the Third Army have made three crossings of the Danube in the Regensburg area. United States and French troops are striking toward Augsburg and Munich from the north and west. The front is quiet along the Mulde and Elbe Rivers, opposite the positions where the link-up with the Russians is expected, except for large numbers of German soldiers crossing the rivers to surrender. In the north British troops are battling in the river defences of Bremen. Two divisions are in the centre of the city and are driving towards the docks. A bridgehead over the Maas River had to be relinquished after a counter-attack in some force west of Nijmegen. Remarkable scenes were witnessed on several American front line sectors nearest the points where it is expected to meet the Russians, says the British United Press correspondent with the First Army. Patrols which moved out across the Mulde River met no resistance, but were forced to return by hundreds of fully armed Germans, who wanted to surrender. One patrol contacted a group of freed AngloAmericans who were bringing in their former guards. Seventy Hungarians and crowds of clamouring German civilians on the other side of the Mulde River are pleading with the American commander to be allowed to cross, so that they can escape from the Russians, but only German prisoners of war and freed Allies are permitted to move to the west. The Americans had to discourage with machine-guns civilians who tried to swim the river.

The Third Army advanced on a front of 30 miles in a south-east direction parallel with the Czechoslovakian frontier. It advanced by from 10 to 28 miles at one point, and now has troops on the Altmuhl road north-west of Ingostadt. Other troops reached the Danube opposite Regensburg. Armour entered Regen, 32 miles from the Austrian frontier.

On the First and Ninth Army fronts there has been no change. On the 21st Army Group front the major operation is the reduction of Bremen, which has begun with troops of General Sir Miles Dempsey’s Second Army eating into the outskirts from the south and south-east. There have been no changes on the Canadian front. The Canadians have reached the Ems Estuary south of Emden, says a correspondent at Field-Marshal Montgomery’s headquarters. Scottish and British troops are fighting in Suderworst, a suburb of Bremen, and in Hastedt. Wessex infantry have driven five miles east along the Hamburg-Bremen autobahn from Oyten, and Guards tanks have cleared a pocket west of Rotenburg. The 21st Army Group has taken 116,000 prisoners since the start of the Rhine offensive. Inside Bremen The British are fighting inside the city boundary of Bremen, states the British United Press correspondent with the Second Army. Hastedt has been taken. British and Scottish infantry, fighting through a maze of ruined streets and buildings from west and south-east to-night pressed to within 4000 yards of the heart of Bremen. The Third British Division and 52nd Scottish Division pushed forward one mile and a mile and a half respectively. Both formations reported that rubble and demolitions constituted their greatest obstacle. Royal Air Force medium bombers ahead of the leading platoons carried out a day-long assault against strongpoints and fun positions. The pilots reported that the Germans had blown up the north spans of two bridges across the Weser inside Bremen. Antiaircraft defences, which a few weeks ago were the most formidable in Germany, were silent. The Guards Armoured Division captured Zeven, an important communications centre on the escape roads from the Weser, and wiped out the Rotenburg pocket, thus forming a continuous front east of Bremen for the Third Wessex Division, which entered the Bremen battle to-day with a thrust of five miles west of Oyten.

The Canadians, reaching the Ems Estuary north of Nieuweschans, split the last defenders west of the Ems into two pockets. Bitter fighting is still going on in the Kusten Canal bridgehead, where the Canadians are desperately battling with paratroops on the approaches to the Oldenburg defence lines.

The Brussels radio reports that the Americans entered Regensburg (better known as Ratisbon) and are still advancing toward Berchtesgaden, the southern redoubt stronghold, from which thgy are 80 miles. The Third Army stands along 75 miles of the Danube. It is about 65 miles from Munich and 10 from Pilsen. German officers have instructed their roops that henceforth it is “every man for himself.” This is revealed in a report by the correspondent of the Associated American Press with the 12th Armv Groun. The correspondent states that the capture of seven German generals bv the 12th Army Group in spite of the absence of breakthrough* conditions, adds significance to the announcement. The correspondent of the British United Press with the Ninth Army states that Himmler’s brother-in-law. General Mokott, was captured by the Americans in Harzwald. Radolfzell, which is the SS stronghold and a railway centre near Constance, is ablaze after three air attacks this morning and heavy artillery car be heard from the north presumably from the French First Army. Panic reigns in Constance as the result of a rumour that negotiations with the Allies for Constance to be declared an open town have been broken off. says the British United Press correspondent at the Swiss border. Hundreds of Germans are seeking admittance into Switzerland, but only a continuous stream of foreign workers are allowed to cross the frontier.

Food For Dutch General Eisenhower, in an order broadcast by the Luxemburg radio, warned German troops in Holland against interfering with Allied planes supplying food by parachute from the air to the Dutch "in order to relieve the food situation behind the German lines. All types of Allied planes day and night will be used not for war purposes but to drop food to the Dutch. The planes will fly so low as to avoid everything that may impair military operations. Whoever fires against low-flving planes is committing a crime against humanity and will later be tried and bear the consequences. Whoever tries to steal supplies or conceal them from the starving population will be held responsible.”

The British Second Army took 4000 prisoners on Monday. Thunderbolt fighter-bombers attacking an area 30 miles north of Munich blew up an underground factory by | firing through the tunnel doors. The j explosion wrecked one of the attack- i Ing planes in the air. French troops occupied Lorrach, five miles northeast of Basle, after some street fighting. 1