Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-03-20
Sd Army F|anks Siegfried Line
And Secondary Innsbruck Line
SuorIuutern Falls;
Many Thousand
Nozis Captured
MAP on Page A-3.J
By the Associated Press.

fs tne ASsOCidteo FIcsS.
PARIS, Mar. 20.-Lt. Gen
George S. Patton's American Sd
Army today completely flanked
both the Siegfried Line and the
secondary Innsbruck Line in
the Saar and Palatinate and
moved swiftly toward a juncture
with 1t. Gen. Alexander M.
Patch's 7th Army somewhere
near the Rhine.
Unverified reports reaching su-
preme Allied headquarters said the
two armies already had achieved a
iuncture farther west in the Saar-
bruecken area. closing smaller trap
and sealing off Germany's last great
war industry belt short of the Ruhr
The Sd Army fanked the two
German fortification belts by cap
turing Alley, Hessian town founded
by the Romans from which railroads
fan out to Kaiserslautern, Worms
and Mainz. The main Siegfried
Line is just east of the Saar River
and just north of the Alsatian
border The Innsbruck switch line
through the mountains was anchored
to the main line at Merzig and in
the Karlsruhe corner of the Rhine.
Saarlautern Captured.
The Sd Army finally captured
Saarlautern, the Saar steel city of
$4,000, after three and a half
months of battle. The suburbs of
Ensdorf, Standardization and
Fraulatern also were taken.
To the north of this area, other
of Gen. Pattons forces had reached
a point within miles of Mainz,
on the Rhine at the mouth of the
Main River. The Germans blew
up three Rhine bridges at Mainz.
In all the Patton army took As
towns yesterday.
Still farther north. 1t. Gen.
Courtney H. Hodges LIST Army east
of the Rhine drove 21a miles east
of the Ruhr-Frankfurt superhigh-
way and captured second airfield
in their bridgehead, now at least
10 miles long and miles wide. AL
ready, Gen. Hodges tanks were de-
bouching on the plain east of Bonn,
fiat land leading to the Ruhr from
the south.
Big LIST Army Attack Reported.
The Germans said the LIST Army
had launched heavy attack in the
southern end of the bridgehead,
penetrating miles into German
lines beyond Hoenningen to reach
the Rhine opposite Andernach. If
true, this would lengthen the Re
magen salient to % miles and place
Gen. Hodges troops within II miles
of the fortress of Ehrenbreitstein,
opposite CoblenZ.
The Ruhr itself was partly con-
ouered; many of it's factories were
smashed by shells whining as far
east as Essen.
Gen. Patton was forging one of
the most complete victories the
western front has yet seen.
In seven days his offensive has
inflicted at least As 900 casualties on
the original 10000 Germans in the
Rhine Moselle-Saar pocket, Core
spondent E. D. Ball said in a dis
patch from the front.
The Sd Army counted 1856 pris-
oners yesterday for record single
days take by any Allied army in the
west-but it was estimated that the
total bag for the day would reach
from $1,000 to 10000 when the
count was completed. One division
took 6,700 alone.
The 7th Army bagged thousands
more-the exact count was not an
nounced.
Heavy Aerial Assault.
Allied planes were so thick over
the front today that they had to
queue up for attacks on Germans
streaming along a superhighway
from Kaiserslautern to the Rhine.
Gen. Patton's troops crashed to
within miles of the major Palati-
nate road center of Kaiserslautern
and captured Alley, which is %
miles from the chemical centers of
Mannheim and LudWigshafen on the
Rhine. The Sd Army was less than
Is miles from the 7th Army in the
Kaiserslautern area. Correspondent
Ball messaged:
with the Siegfried Line flanked,
the Sd and 7th Army should meet
shortly somewhere near the Rhine. I"
The 7th Army attacking the Saar