Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-03-28
Patton and Hodges Reported
Just Over 200 Miles From Berlin
Montgomery's
Forces in North
Score Wide Gains
By the Associated Press.

PARIS, Mar. 28.-The German
high command said today that
American Sd Army tanks had
crashed into Gemuenden, 218
miles southwest of Berlin, but
had been driven out. Later, how
ever, a Berlin broadcast said the
Americans had pierced miles
farther to the northeast toward
Grafendorf.
The German cOmmunique said
Gemuenden was reached Yesterday
in a mighty surge of Lt Gen.
George S. Patton'S forces As miles
east of tOttering Frankfurt and 10
miles from Czechoslovakia. The
communique said the town was re-
captured" and Is tanks were de-
stroyed.
The Germans said it was Gen.
PattonS 4th Armored Division
which reached Gemuenden and as
serted that "concentric counter
attack" had driven the break
through" division back out of the
town. Gemueden is 7 miles north
east of Lohr, which the enemy said
was reached yesterday.
Wide Break Throughs.
This report came while four of
Gen. EiSenhoWer's armies were surg
ing through wide break throughs in
dlsintegrating German lines.
The 1St Army reached the Gies-
sen area, 225 miles from the capital
and 60 miles beyond the shattered
Rhine line.
The 7th Army drove 80 miles be-
yond the Rhine, reached the Main
River and formed with the Sd and
LIST Armies a solid front on the roll
ing tank country of inner Germany.
The British I'd Army slashed Is
miles deep in Westphalia, menacing
Muenster, its capital
The 9th Army was cleaning UP
the western part of the Ruhr-com-
pletely outfianked by the 1st Army
on the south and half outfianked
by the British on the north Cana
dams burst into the eastern out
skirts of the Rhine bastion of En-
merich.
Frankfurt Radio Captured.
The German radio said Sd Army
troops had captured and were using
the radio inside Frankfurt, Ger
manys ninth largest city, which
Gen. Patton's forces were conquer
ing block by block.
The western end of Frankfurt
and its southern suburbs were in
American hands. The city's airport,
second largest in Germany, was
taken, and suburban Offenbach,
most important industrial center in.
Hesse and city of 10000, was cap
tured. Frankfurt, largely in ruins,
was city of $4,000 before the war
and one of Europes greatest rail
centerS.
The full extent of the Allied VIC
tories in the west still was obscured
by partial security blackouts.
A dispatch from Sd Army head
quarters, filed by Thoburn Want
four hours earlier than the Ger
man broadcast, said the eastern
most advance Of Gen. Patton'S
troops still was Aschafenburg, %
miles southeast of Frankfurt and
Is southwest of Gemeunden.
Advance at Will.
The American LIST, Sd and 7th
Armies and the British I'd Army all
had achieved breakthroughs and
were advancing virtually at will in
side inner Germany.
The British were IS miles beyond
the Lower Rhine at the very edges
of such Westphalian centers as Bor-
ken, Raesfeld, Bocholt and Dorsten
all on the approaches to Muenster
TWo-thirds of Hanau on the Main
10 miles east was captured by the
Sd Army; hopping up continued in
Aschaffenburg.
"GueSSeS respecting Wuerzburg
and Nuremberg are completely err
roneous," Correspondent Want re-
ported. (The Germans said Sd
Army tank columns were threaten
ing both cities.)
The Goth Division. crossed the
Main between Frankfurt and Ha-
nau and advanced miles north. |
The Sd Army crossed the Rhine at
a new point south of Boppard.
A partial lifting of the news
blackout on Sd Army movements
disclosed that 10,251 Germans had |
been captured east of the Rhine in |
a week, 4,312 of them YESTERDAY. |