The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-04-04
Third Army Units Drive
Into Suburbs Of Gotha
from Page One)

(OOHtluuCu L S6O OAANJ
Kassel, even though the city of
217.O85 was being conquered and
American guns sprayed the fac
tories with mass bombardments.
In Holland and northwest Ger
many, the British and Canadian
armies drove toward the Zuikder
Zee and the North Sea Nazi ports
in a supreme effort to trop 10000
Germans of the Army Group H
already in outright flight by
horsecart, trucks and anything
that would move.
Ninth Army tanks racing for
the north German hatlands were
less than IT'S miles from Berlin
and five miles from the Weser riv-
err.
The First and Ninth Armies
frightened their trap on the 1900
square-mile Ruhr, where 10000
trapped Nazis thrashed about,
vainly looking for a weak spot
through which to escape. All Ger
man counterattacks were smash
ed, the First Army pressing in for
the kill from the south and east;
the Ninth Army striking down
from the north.
General Eisenhower declared
the Germans were ripe for an
nihilation,'' and again called on
them and other Nazi forces to sur
render.
The Canadians moved within Is
miles of the Zuider Zee and cross
ed the Wwenthe canal. while the
British beat down the last So
miles or less to the North Sea in
efforts to spring a double trap.
Muenster, capital of Westpha-
liza, was all but cleared by the
U. S. 18th Airborne Division and
British tanks. Town after town
fell in the north.
The British 18th Armored Divi-
sion burst into the traffic center
of Osnabrueck and fought within
so miles Of Bremen and 81 Of
Wilhelnshaven. naval bases 81
Germany's still dangerous U-boat
squadrons.
On the north side of the RUIZ
trap. the Ninth Army captured
Recklinghausen, a munitions Pro-
Queer of $1,000, and dashed to
within five miles of the Weser riv-
err at point south of HEREFORD,
12O miles east of the Rhine. The
Ninth Army fought the last Ger
mans in Hamm, eastern exit OF
the Ruhr and Europe's largest rail
center.
The Ninth was less than so
miles from Hanover, ia from
Hamburg and 30 from Brunswick.
The American Seventh Army
moving across rugged southern
Germany closed within a. miles
Of Nuremberg, 30 Of Stuttgart and
six of Heilboronn after outflank-
ing Karlsruhe near the Rhine.
More than half of the ruins Of
Aschaffenburg on the Main river
q miles southeast Of Frankfurt.
were won by the 45th Division
while other Seventh Army mar
fought 18 miles to the east. ,
The Canadians fought within
three miles of the big Dutch Rhine
city of Anthem, capturing Huis-
sen and Angeren in the so-called
island between rivers north OF
Nijmegen.
At last reports, the Canadians
were WITHIN eight miles of Deven.
ter on the main traffic line to the
V-bomb launching sites on the
Dutch coast between Rotterdam
and the Hague. Already tn:
vengeful bombardment of Eng.
land has eased as supply line at
ter supply line was cut by Canadi.
an and British advances.
Through the tightening corridor
around the eastern end of the Zui-
der Zees, the Germans were run.
ming eastward.
There seemed considerable like.
lihood that this time, IN Wehr.
macht's wailing need for man
power inside Germany would out.
weigh the past policy of coastal
holdouts and that even the ven.
geance bases on the Dutch coast