90,000 MEN LOST

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

90,000 MEN LOST

GERMANS IN SAAR TALE OF DESTRUCTION MAIN ESCAPE ROAD CUT (United Press Assn.—Eleo. Tel. Copyright) (Received March 23, 1 p.m.) LONDON, March 22 Nine German Divisions, approximately 90,000 soldiers, have been wiped out in the SaarPalatinate pocket, reports an American Press correspondent. General Patton’s forces yesterday took prisoner the record number of 11,300, of which 2200 were captured at Worms. Since March 3 the Army has destroyed, with Air Force support, 350 tanks, 200 big guns and 5000 motor vehicles. The commanding officer of one decimated German division committed suicide as the result of despondency over the ignominious end of the Wehrmacht west of the Rhine. Third Army forces in an advance of six miles today cleared Mainz except for a small area. A correspondent says the Mainz perimeter defence from which the Germans fought hard for two days, collapsed last night, after which American infantry moved into the town. The Germans are still fighting in the old sections of Mainz covering a small area of the heart of the city along the river.

The Tenth Armoured Division is only 19 miles north-west of Karlsruhe. The only main road leading out of the German-held pocket has been cut west of Landau, and although secondary roads are available they w r ill soon be of little use.

Seventh Army units beyond Kaiserslautern are intermingling with General Patton’s troops. The Americans captured the wellknown I. G. Farben factory near Ludwigshafen employing 15,000. The factory, engaged in the manufacture of chemicals, is reputed to be one of the largest poison gas factories in Germany. Big Column Surrenders

The unrelenting Allied air attack on the Germans’ last escape routes from the Palatinate yesterday caused a large German column to halt, wave white flags and await capture by the Seventh Army, reports Renter's correspondent at Supreme The Germans west of the Rhine are herded into a 300 square miles’ triangle. The pocket was originally 5000 square miles. The German positions at the east end of the Siegfried Line are holding fairly strongly in a desperate effort to keep open the last avenues for flight There is still hard fighting, *particularlv; in the Wiessenburg Gap, where the Germans are laying down heavy concentrations of artillery and rocket fire.

The Seventh Army yesterday took prisoner 6000. The provision of transport for the mounting numbers of German prisoners is becoming a problem.