Evening star., 1945-04-03
Western Front
Continued From First Page.)

River southwest of Siegen and beat
down two weak counterattacks.
1t. Gen. Courtney H. Hodges 1st
Army had captured the equivalent
of an entire German Army in the
last nine days of its blitz drive from
the original Rhine crossing. A
total of 1868 prisoners have been
counted, 4,82l of them yesterday,
and hundreds more waited to be
processed. Since D day the 1st
Army has captured 358,75S.
British tanks and the American
17th Air-borne Division captured
two thirds of burning Muenster,
|capital of Westphalia.
The 9th Army on the northeast
lip of the Ruhr pocket drove east
through a laboriously carved gap in
the Tutoburgerwald-an easily de-
Tended wooded ridge around Biele-
field. The I'd Armored and 30th In
fantry Divisions reached Hiddeson,
Billinhausen and Frodissen after
clearing passes through the ridge
just north of Bielefeld. The 9th
Army also was mopping up IN
Hamm, greatest rail center in
Europe.
Planes noted the Germans OF
Army Group H in full flight from
Holland and the. V-bomb bases be-
tween the Hague and Rotterdam
from which England has been SUBJ
jected to vengeance fire. Within
48 hours, the bases may be inter-
dicted, Ross Munro of the Canadian
press reported.
Other planes flying over the Ruhr
pocket saw no rail movements in
or beyond that great, encircled in
dustrial basin.
Defenses Being Wiped Out.
Enemy defenses in Holland and
Northern Germany were being cut
to ribbons and escape routes for
Field Marshal Johannes Blasko-
Wits armies were being severed
one after another.
The Ruhr industrial center of
Recklinghausen $4,000 fell to the
9th Army, which also seized Suder-
wich, Berghagen and numerous un-
specified Ruhr localities north of the
line of Duisburg and the Dortmund-
Ems Canal.
The encirclement of the Ruhr by
a wide pincer movement has cut off
the whole of Army Group B and
parts of Army Group H, thus form
ing large pocket of enemy troops
whose fate is sealed and who are
ripe for annihilation, Gen. Eisen-
hover declared in a special order of
the day.
THE most vital industrial area is
denied to the German war potential.
This magnificent feat of arms will
bring the war more rapidly to a
close. 1t will long be remembered
in history as an outstanding battle
the battle of the Ruhr'
Germans trapped in the Ruhr
pocket have not yet mounted a ma
jor effort to break out, but they are
probing in several places in search
of soft spot" Associated Press Cor
respondent Tom Yarbrough report
ed. German resistance on the
whole has stiffened and our advance
has been held up at several points
by local counterattacks, all of which
have been contained"
Weser May Have Been Reached.
One front-line dispatch suggested
that the 9th Army might have
reached the Weser River near
Hameln. 155 miles from Berlin, but
there was no official verification.
At the southern end of the front,
Gen. Jacob l.. Devers' 9Th Army
Group pressed to within 80 miles of
Stuttgart (460,000) and within 6
miles of the important ,Wuerttem-
berg traffic center of Heilbronn
The 42d tRainbow) Division was
mopping up the area of Wuerzburg
108,61O on the approaches to the
Nazi shrine city of Nuremberg (431.-
000), within A miles of 7th Army
columns. The 10th Armored Di-
vision was meeting stiff resistance
toward Nuremberg.
The French 1st Army, also of
Gen. Devers' command, had out
fanked the Baden capital of Karl
sruhe Q89,095) and widened its
cross Rhine front to Is miles or
more.