The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-03-02
First Is Set
For New Push
Into Cologne
Latest Prize Is The Largest
Reich City Captured j
On Either Front 4

PARIS, March 1.-(Pl--Ihe U. ).
Ninth Army today swiftly capture
ed the Ruhr city Of Muenchen
GladbachEargest Reich center to
fall on the Eastern or Western
Front-and the German radio said
tanks slashed II miles farther
north into Krefeld, only two miles
from the Rhine.
The U. S. First Army massed
tanks and troops ready to storm
the last five miles into Germany's
fourth largest city of Cologne, and
80 miles south the U. S. Third
Army smashed into the ancient for
tress of Trier after blazing SIX
mile squirt that cut off several
thousand Germans.
Only 20 miles northwest Of where
the Germans said the Ninth Army
was driving for the Rhine, the
Canadian First Army crunched
southwark nearly a mile, threaten
ing to join the Americans in
rampage through the spraWling
Ruhr industries west Of the Rhine.
The fall of Muenchen Gladbach
and adjacent Rheydt, where pro-
paganda Minister Goebbels was
born, was the only news sitting
through the two-day security black
out masking the lightning moves
of the Ninth Army. which even
now may be at the Rhine.
Several divisions were approach
ing the Rhine from various direc.
tons, and in its rush the Ninth
overwhelmed a dozen more towns.
The capture Of Muenchen Glad
bach in the western edge of the
Ruhr Basin in less than "a hours
testified to the speed with which
the Germans are pulling back
across the Rhine with every tank.
gun and soldier they can salvage
from the flaming battlefields.
Thousands of Germans were SUR
rendering and resistance often was
disorganized.
A total of 81 German towns fell
to the U. S. First. Third and Ninth
Armies during the day and the
first and Ninth have taken 10000
prisoners in week.
Staff officers of both the First
and Ninth Armies declared the
Germans were pulling out west OF
the Rhine and preparing for an in
ner Reich defense on the east bank.
Even in front of Cologne the en-
envy was expected to make little
more than a delaying stand.
While tanks and troops massed
along the broken Erft river line
for the final smash at Cologne.
huge 1O-inch howit7ers began blast
ing today at Brauweil power plant
-one of the worlds largest-four
miles west of the city and sup
plying the Cologne area.
It appeared that Trier was soon
to 60 the way of Muenchen Glad
bach, for, as fierce fighting broke
out in its timc-worn streets, 9TH
err forces swept three and a half
miles to the northeast and cut the
main highway to Coblenz, 60 miles
farther northeast.
(NBC said in a front broadcast
tonight that Gen. Eisenhower had
conferred with Field Marshal Mont
gomery, commander of the 21st
Army Group, 1t. Gen. Omar N.
Bradley, commander of the 18TH
Army Group, and the generals OF
the U. S. Ninth, British Second and
Canadian First Armies on the final
big push against Germany
A dispatch from Bradley's head.
quarters said three plans original.
ly were laid out for the Ameri.
can Rhine-bound offensive-slow.
medium and fast-that the First
two now had been discarded and
the Doughboys were in highest
gear.
Although the weather closed In
soon after midday, Allied Air
Forces put $500 warplanes into the
skies, pounding the Germans IN
their positions west OF the Rhine
aid their communications in the
rear.
The First Army expanded its Erft
bridgehead to width of six miles
from Bergsheim in the north to
Moedrath on the south, and dee
ened it to as much as three miles
Continued on Page Three, Col. ~