The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-03-20


 enemy keystone at Mainz, on the Rhine $ miles northeast of Kaiser lautern, also was imperiled by a tank column that drive to within seven miles of the city on the southwest.
 l On the Q. 8. First Army's Rema- gen bridge1aead front east of thC Rhine, German dispatches said the Americans started a new offensive along the northern perimeter. ThG drive was aimed at breakthrougt into the open country leading north ward to the Ruhr basin.
 Field dispatches said the bridge head now measured 19 1-2 nIlSs wide along the liver bank and ex- tended inland as much as eight miles.
 At least 10 towns in the bridge head area were captured overnight including Eudenbach, 2 1-2 miles east of the Rhine -Ruhr-B Berlin su- perhighwAy. The first army seized a big fighter-plane strip near Eu- denbach and extended it's hold on the military highway to more than t7 1-2 miles.
 On the 3rd Army front the Ger mans destroyed 'our bridges across { the Rhine at Mainz as Patton's forces approached the city. The destruction deprived the Germans west of the Rhine of one of their main escape routes across the river.
 From 40 to 45 German towns were taken by the Seventh Army in its northward drive into the 1iegfried line.
 Swarms of American warplanes were reported in action again this morning, raking the retreating enemy columns with bombs and gunfire all across the choked roads from 6aarbruecken to the Rhine.
 First accounts indicated that clear skies again were favoring the pursuit, raising hopes that the Tank flyers could repeat yester- days mass slaughter.
 $500 Vehicles Destroyed
 From dawn to dark yesterday they claimed the destruction of almost 3,30O Nazi vehicles inside the pocket including railway cars, trucks, tanks and arrnored cars. Another 2,50C vehicles were damaged in the day. long chase.
 Under the combined ground and air pounding, the German defenses on both sides of the Saar-Palatinate pocket were falling apart by the hour.
 It. Gen. Alexander M. Patch's north-bound Seventh Army ripped through the Siegfried line at a dozen points on the 50-mile front from Gaarbruecken to the Rhine and cleared the Nazis from their last foothold on French soil
 The Germans still were fighting a savage delaying action on the Sev- enth Army front, however, and the scope of the Nazi disaster appeared to hinge on how swiftly Patton's men from the north could break through to link up with Patch's divisions.
 Front dispatches said Patton's armored and motorized infantry col- umns were running riot through the ! center of the Saar-Palatinate, threatening momentarily to cut the main railway line running through Homburg and KaiserSlautern to the Rhine.
 Z The Third Army's 10th Armored Division overnight slashed more than 10 miles southeastward to within four miles northwest of KaiseTslautern. There Patton's men were barely 20 miles north of the Seventh Army's vanguards be- fore Pirmasens, central anchor of the imperiled Siegfried Notifications.
 Pattons 11th Armored Division and 8 blacked-out armored force also were riding down on Kaisers- aautern from the north and north west at breakneck speed. Units of the two tank divisions linked up at Merzweiler, IT miles north-northwest of Kaiserslautern. closing a trap around some 2,000 Germans. United Press War Correspondent Robert Myers reported from the Third Army front that Patton's troops captured & record total of 15,000 to 10000 Nazis yesterday and 1t was indicated that hundreds more were being rounded up hourly.
 One column of the 11th armored division stormed into Rockenhausen. .13 miles northwest of Kaiserlautern. early today. while units of the uni identified tank force closed on the enemy communications center in three columns, cutting westward across the path of the l1th.
 The blacked-out division gained -four to five miles overnight to points III miles north, seven north-north- west and nine northwest of Kaisers- lautern.
 At the same time, Patton's famous fourth armored division was riding full-tilt for Mainz on the Rhine in ]. Ia bid to seal off that escape gap for the fleeing Nazs. Vanguards of the trolling fourth captured Wolfsheim and Vendersheim, eight and nine 5 miles east of Bad Kreuznach, and gained another four miles northeast ward to the area of Bubenhein. There they were nine miles south- west of Mainz.
 Another fourth armored column pushed eight miles southeast of Wolfsheim to take the road hub 24 miles northwest of the Rhine city of Ludwigshafen and six miles north of the main German escape road from KaiserSlautern.
 Pattons motorized infantry divi- Eions were mopping up swiftly in the wake of the four pace making ar- mored forces, and were rolling up big gains on their own along the right flank of the Third army.
 The 80th infantry division cleared St. Wendell, eight miles north of the enemy-held highway and rail center ' inA AIAi,s,lzirnhn.a Hha Dnnnhhn,,r