WAR’S BIGGEST SMOKESCREEN

Waikato Times, Volume 196, Issue 22568, 23 March 1945, Page 3

WAR’S BIGGEST SMOKESCREEN

BRITISH-CANADIAN FRONT

EXTENDS 66 MILES FROM NIJMEGEN VON RUNDSTEDT REPLACED BY KESSELRING FIRST ARMY BRIDGEHEAD GROWS * LONDON, March 21 Described as the “biggest, longest and thickest of the war,'’ a smokescreen has been laid down on Field-Marshal Montgomery’s lower Rhine from Nijmegen 66 miles southward. “A new Allied all-out offensive may break at any hour now,” says the German news agency. “The Allied Command has replenished its airborne divisions, but the German Military Command is ready for landings by skytroops.” It is officially announced from 21st Army Group Headquarters that Field-Marshal von Rundstedt has been removed from the command of the German armies on the western front and has been replaced by the commander in Italy, Field-Marshal Kesselrir.g. .

The Third Army controls nearly all the stretch of the Rhine from Coblenz 100 miles south to Ludwigshafen, which is almost cleared. Among the captures in Ludwigshafen is a chemical factory employing 15,000 workers. House to house fighting is still proceeding in several towns, including Mainz and Worms, but three-quarters of Mainz has been cleared. In the Saar Valley the Germans have lost nine divisions and 350 tanks.

First Army tanks are along 14 miles of the Cologne-Frank-furt autobahn after an advance today of 2l miles. In the bridgehead the day's progress amounted to five miles, and the bridgehead is 29 miles long and nine miles deep. At both ends the Americans have crossed rivers where the Germans had hoped to make a stand.

General Eisenhower has followed up his broadcasts to people in the Ruhr with one addressed to workers in armament factories, urging them to get out into the fields. Those who are not already enrolled in the Volkssturm are urged to leave the battle areas.