The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-04-10
Army Races 21
 Miles Past Hanover
(Continued from Page D

ASdlIlSL Wcdk OppOo1L1Ol
 Lieutenant General George S. Patton's American Third Army also was on the move farther south. The Thirds drive, Berlin spokesman said, was flaming out east toward the CzechoSlovak frontier and south into Bavaria toward Nuremberg.
 Powerful armored and infantry forces of the American First and Ninth Armies also were teamed up in converging attacks on an esti- mated 100000 or more Germans trapped in the Ruhr pocket. The enemy commander, Field Marshal Walther Won Model, was believed also to be in the trap.
 The whole Ruhr was ablaze from Allied bombs and shellflre, and field dispatches said the Americans ad- vanced as much as six miles into the pocket today against weaken ing opposition.
 Berlin spokesmen admitted that Hanover was rocking under a "drumfire' artillery barrage, but they claimed that American attacks on the city had been repelled.
 The NaziS were silent on the new First Army drive in Central Ger many, which appeared to have un- covered gaping hole in the enemy defenses covering the southwestern flank of Berlin.
 Front dispatches said It. Gen Courtney H. Hodges First Army sorces started their new attack in- to the foothills of the Harz Noun tains early today, on the heels of an 18-mile advance yesterday that shattered the Nazi defenses along the Weser and Leine rivers. Hodges men started daybreah along 3O-mile front looping in tc within 133 miles of Berlin and were speeding ahead against only de. sultory opposition.
 At Nordhausen the American! would be 55 miles from the Elb' River stronghold of Magdeburg, 6I miles west of Leipzig and barel 150 miles from juncture with thu Red Army.
 At the same time American ant British forces in the north struck within 60 miles or less of the Elbt twin drives for Hamburg anc Brunswick, the latter only 104 miles due west of Berlin.
 German spokeslnen said the Am. erican Third and Seventh Armie. on the southern flank also hac opened coordinated attacks headed for. the Nazi shrine city of Nuern- berg.
 A NaN transocean report placed one Third Army spearhead at Ro- dach, 10 miles northwest of Coburg and 59 miles from the Czech front fer.
 Humiliation Fight
 Far behind the Allied Berlin ant Bavaria spearheads, two great bat ties of annihilation were raging 1T the Ruhr and Holland pockets where American, British and Can. adian forces had sealed off mor' than 100000 German troops. The Canadians slammed shut al but one of the land escape route! for perhaps 50,000 Germans caugh in Western Holland, leaving oper only a narrow, bomb-spatteret causeway along the coast. Tha road, too, was less than eight mile from the Canadian front, and al armored column was hooking nortf ward along the Dutch German border within 25 miles of the Elm den naval base in bid to seal thu trap permanently from that direc ton.
 The American Third Armored Di vision sparked Hodges First Arm! offensive this morning. The veteran tank fighters captured Dunderstadt 9 miles west of Nordhausen, las night after a 13-mile advance iron Goettingen.
 They seized 150 German guns ans 200 prisoners in the town after fir ing few shots that brought thu Nazi garrison out in panicky rust to surrender.
 At daybreak, the Third shove' off for Nordhausen and was report ed moving ahead at a pace tha promised to reach that city by nightfall.
 Twelve miles to the south, another First Army column reached Dtngel' stadt, while a Third force crossed the Leine river 18 miles northwes of Dunderstadt, captured Northern and rolled on another three mile! last night. There they were only 13; miles from Berlin, and the advance was continuing at top speed.
 Strong infantry forces wer' crowding in close behind the tanl spearheads, mopping up by-passet pockets of resistance between Din. gelstadt and Northeim.
 The Anglo-American offensive 1T the north swept far beyond the be- sieged and burning fortress cities o. Hanover and Bremen, both O. which were rocking under a ter rife Allied cannonading. Unconfirmed reports said Brit. ish units already were stormint through the streets of Bremen, Ger. many's second seaport, and Amer. ican Ninth TAR n. .-elghnMyn ican Ninth army troops were nov ing through the outskirts of Han mover from all sides.
 Late field dispatches said British Second Army tanks were racing Ill through the 55-mile corridor be- tween Bermen and Hamburg les than 60 miles southwest of the lat ter port and about o6 miles iron the Baltic coast.
 i2 Beyond Hannoves
 The Ninth Army's speeding tank meanwhile struck out southeast Q