Evening star., 1945-03-18

ay disobeyed Hitler's orders to lie;
still were under a partial news
blackout.
100000 Troops Committed.
Bad Krueznach, general head
quarters for the German Army in
the World War, is 81 miles west of
Mainz, city of 10000 with two rail-
way and one highway bridge across
the Rhine, over which the Germans
already were fleeing under the
Whiplash of swarms of warplanes.
At Mainz, the Sd Army would
be at the Rhine elbow and could
veer south, knocking out all Ger
man positions remaining west of
the Rhine in the Saar, the Palati-
nate, and the western corner of the
Rhenish province of Hesse, of which
Mainz is the capital.
The Germans declared Gen. Pat
ton was attacking with Is armored
and 25 infantry divisions and to-
gether with the 7th Army had COM
mitted 100000 troops to the struggle
between Coblenz and Haguenau,
north of Strasbourg.
The armored columns were NOV
ing at such a terrific pace that
bridges were captured intact, un-
manned roadblocks were overrun,
and Germans were captured asleep
in their billets.
hHNca11a Lr;InnI,aoI frpy,,
which the 4th Armored Division
burst two days ago was building up
as fast as the Goth and 5th Infantry
Divisions could advance.
Villages Mopped up.
Both scored gains of miles or
more southwest of Coblenz, mop
ping up by-passed villages, and
some forces had moved within a
few miles of Simmern, 18 miles
south of the bridgehead, which the
armored forces swept through earlier
in their southwark dash.
Gen. Patton's troops far to the
west were rolling up the western
flank of the Saar, where they were |
held up last fall and winter before
the savagely defended Siegfried
Line.
Breaking into the Saar Basin
proper from the northwest, one
force of tanks in advances of 2 miles
or more captured Losheim, only 13
miles north of the Sd Armys long
held Saar River bridgehead at Saar-
lautern.
Other forces farther west were
within miles north of Merzig, an
other Saar strong point north OF
Saarlutern which defied frontal as
sault last year.
With troops of 1t. Gen. Courtney
H. Hodges farther north threaten
ing breakthrough into the North
Geermain plain beyond the Rhine,
the enemy was rushing up all avail
able reserves, most of them the rag
tag of divisions which managed to
escape across the Rhine.
Units at Edge of Ruhr Plain.
The 1st Army now held posses
sion of, or controlled by close
range fire, Az mile segment of the
super highway, which leads to the
Ruhr and joins another to Berlin.
This strip runs from Ittenbach,
7 miles northeast of Remagen
Bridge, AZ miles southeastward to
Hallerbach.
One force battered more than a
mile beyond the highway into Hues-
cheid, where it stood at the very
edge of the Ruhr plain.
1t wa in this area that the Ger
mans insisted the new United States
18th Army had gone into action.
On the north flank along the
Rhine the Americans were driving
steadily through Koenigswinter
within miles of the plain and the
Germans said they had evacuated
the town.
Forces driving due east scored an
important tactical victory with the
capture of Strodt, six miles from the
bridge.
Nearby Vettelschoss also fell. Both
had been converted into strong
points guarding the super highway.
Counterattacks Beaten OFF.
Hoenningen, on the southern
flank, was cleared before noon and
infantry pushed out east of town,
beat off a counterattack and cap
tured high ground.
American troops drove the last ,
German from Haguenau, near the
Rhine Is miles north of Strasbourg,
and drove on north a mile or two
into the dense Haguenau Forest.
French units assigned to the 7th
Army, moving a mile north along
the Rhine, captured Schirrhein, 5
miles east OF Haguenau, but they
were up against some of the stoutest
opposition from German forces
holding open an escape route
through the Karlsruhe corner.
In the center of the front, Amer
ican troops who captured the an
cient fortress of Bitche Friday
pushed on east miles and were
through the old Maginot Line for
fi6cot flows |