The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-04-05
British Race
Across Weser
And Ems Line
French Seize Karlsruhe:
Allies Threatening
Stuttgart In South
PARIS, Thursday. April E-tR-

&AAsA1S AAAA S0oyS ApIA O.-VfJ--
U. S. Third Army tank forces,
breaking into the open Thuringian
plain, captured Kassel, Gotha and
Suhl yesterday and closed in on
Erfurt, 100 miles southwest of
Berlin, in their swift race to split
the dying Reich.
In the north, British armored
forces hurdled two major river
barriers, the lower Weser and
Ems rivers, and plunged on to-
ward the great German North Sea
ports of Bremen and Emden.
One force pushing into Lingen,
IS miles south of Emden, and
sweeping onward, was only As
miles from cutting the last Nazi
escape route out of all Holland,
and Canadian troops ON the west
ern flank were overrunning v.
bomb sites.
Karlsruhe, capital Of Baden on
the upper Rhine, fell to the French
First Army at the extreme south.
ern end Of the front. 4 French
communique announced. The ad.
joining U. s. Seventh Army push.
ed to Ufenhein, "a miles north.
west Of Nuremberg, Nazi conven.
ton city and key road city con-
trolling the Berlin-Brenner Pass
routes into Italy. The Americans
and French also were threatening
Stuttgart, big south German ci.
ty.
All Allied armies were pounding
ahead in a swelling tide that ov.
erran underground Nazi factories,
vital airfields, and other war plants.
The Nazis were losing more than
two divisions daily in prisoners
alone.
Field Marshal Montgomery's
British 18th Armored Division
swept around Osnabrueck, where
the last bitter German resisters
were being slain, and crossed the
Weser river, one of the last two
water barriers before Berlin, in
an apparent double strike aimed
at Hanover and Bremen.
Although the exact point OF the
crossing was not divulged in a
late front dispatch, it apparently
occurred above Minden, which is
SO miles south OF Bremen and 81
miles west Of Hanover.
The British plunged beyond
against light opposition, said
dispatch from Associated Press
Correspondent William Frye.
The American Third Army, pac.
ing the Allied drive in the center,
ran through surrendered Gotha
and moved on toward Erfurt, II
miles beyond, astride the Frank.
furt-Dresden military superhigh.
way. The Germans said 40 Allied
elders set down troops, fuel, and
munitions to aid the capture Of
ancient Gotha.
The American Ninth Army
charged up to the 240-foot Weser
river, next to last barrier on the
high road to Berlin, ITO miles
away. Reaching the river at Bad
Oeynhausen, the Americans men.
aced the large Prussian commun.
ications center of Hanover. SO
miles from the Ninth Army tank
The naval base Of Bremen lay 81
miles to the north.
The Ninth pressed down from the
north on the shrinking Ruhr trap
where up to $4,000 Germans fac
ed surrender or humiliation. Field
Marshal Albert Kesselring, su-
preme Nazi commander in the
west. was in the doomed pocket,
a dispatch from the Ninth Army
front said. Advancing infantry
moved within five miles Of bort
mund on two sides.
Street fighting erupted through
the rubbed streets Of WuerzburS,
Hebron, Hamm and Zutphen,
all Of which were falling on
curving 400-nile front as the Al.
lies ripped through hastily erect
ed resistance nests.
The Canadians moved up to
Anthem and were less than 20
miles from the Zuikder Zee in
Holland. Once they reach that
great body Of water they will have
cut off part Of the $4,000 Germans
originally anchored in western
Holland.
Gotha fell without a shot being
fired. Germans broke out white
flags a half-hour before the u. S.
Third Arny's Fourth Armored Di.
vision commander, Brig. Gen.