The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-03-22
Commentators Claim
 Win-the-War Push On
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(Continued great Rhine chemical center of Ludwigshafen. Other Third Army | forces stabbe dto the Rhine north of Ludwigshafen and struck south- ward toward the last enemy escape port opposite Karlsruhe.
 It. Gen. Alexander M. Patch's U. s. Seventh Army troops, meanwhile, burst out of the center of the Sieg- fried line from the south and wheeled eastward to join in the drive for the Rhine between Lud- wigshafen and Karlsruhe.
 Bitter Street Fights
 The battle of the Saar-Palatinate was all but ended afteg seven days of swift and overwhelming advance, except for two bitter-end struggles raging in the streets of Mainz on the Rhine and in narrow stretch of the Siegfried line west of Karlsruhe.
 With their southern flank cleared by Patton's sensational break- through, It. Gen. Courtney H. Hodges First Army troops east of the Rhine immediately charged northward in power drive that threatened momentarily to spill across the narrow Sieg river into the southern flank of the Ruhr-Ger- many's last great military arsenal
 Front reports said armored and infantry divisions were battling for a crossing of the Sieg on winding 10-mile front stretching eastward from the rivers confluence with the Rhine to the factory town of Sieg- burg.
 The attack opened late yesterday in the wake of tremendous aerial bombardment that spread fire and ruin across a vast chain of German road and railway communications linking the imperiled Ruhr with central Germany.
 The blazing air blow, involving up- wards of 6,200 Allied warplanes, electrified the entire Allied battle line drawn up against the Rhine from the Swiss border to the North Sea. Observers Speculated freely that the final round of the war was on. Berlin said all German troops. had been alerted against an air. borne assault on the Rhine in con- junction with central offensive by the American Ninth and 18th and the Canadian First and British sec- ond armies.
 Doughboys of the 78th Infantry division sparked the assault on the Sieg river, charging northward from the east bank suburbs of Bonn against weakening enemy resistance. They swept up seven towns and vil- lages in three-mile advance to the river and hurled weak German rear guards back across the stream.
 Field dispatches said the Nazis apparently were hoping to slave off the First Army rush behind the Sieg barrier, but the narrow river was not expected to prove formidable obstacle.
 Unidentified American armored forces on the 78th's right flank pick ed up the attack during the night. They raced ahead almost three miles along the six-lane NaZi military highway linking the southern Rhine land to the Ruhr and Berlin, and reached the Sieg directly opposite Siegburg. Buisdorf, one mile south east of Siegburg, was entered before dawn.
 Other First Army troops wheeled two miles east of the highway to- ward Hennef, three miles southeast of Siegburg, ramming to within 1-2 miles of the Cologne-Limburg highway.
 American field guns massed be- hind the Sieg poured barrage across the river into the German lines in support of the ground at- tack
 26-MiIe Beachhead
 The bridgehead now measured bout 26 miles n width along the Rhine bank and about eight miles inland from the river. United Press War Correspondent John McDer- mott reported that the collapse of the Ludendorff bridge at Remagen already had been compensated for by the construction of several emergency bridges, one capable oi carrying up to A tons
 In the Saar-Palatinate, mean while, the American Third and Seventh Armies were racing in to seal their victory with the complete destruction of the 80,0OO or more Germans who held the huge triang- ular pocket at the start of the drive week ago.
 Ludwigshafen, Germanys greateSt chemical producing center and hel fourth inland port. was safely ir American hands before nightfal yesterday, although scattered re. sistance was still continuing early today
 Units of an unidentified American armored division rammed into th' city yesterday afternoon and racet quickly to the river front in futilt attempt to capture the double-tracl railway and highway bridge int Mannheim. The bridge already hat been destroyed by ..az demolition crews before the Americans arrived
 Patton's 9th Infantry Division followed the tanks into Ludwigs hafen for the house-to-hous clean up.
 Third Army tank columns wer charging in on the Rhine on botl sides of Ludwigshafen against littl