The Wilmington morning star., 1945-05-07
Fifth Breaks
Into Austria:
.AtTwoPoiints
Patton Rips As Miles Into
Dismembered Nation
From North

PARIS, Monday. May TIP
Gen. Patton hurled at least 10 In.
fantry and armored divisions into
the battle of Czechoslovakia to.
day, Selling the great munitions
city of Pilsen in a poWerladen Of
fensive designed to crush the last
German army now fighting the AL
lies of the west.
simultaneously, the U. S. Fifth
Army from Italy invaded southern
Austria at two points, applying
pressure from the south while the
Third Army was ripping As miles
deep into that dismembered nation
from the north.
The German Seventh Army fell
back toward the Czech capital Of
Prague, so miles northeast of Pill
sen, as the Third Army struck
along a 175-mile front from Eyer
in northwestern Czechoslovakia to
Steyr, 20 miles southeast Of Aus.
tria's third city of Linz.
The fall of Pilsen, second city in
Czechoslovakia and home of the
famed Skoda munitions works, car
ried the Third Army As miles in-
side Czeehoslovakia.
Field dispatches did not indicate
whether the Third Army already
had struck on East of Pilsen, but
they said the flood of tanks and
men was being met by only spor.
adic resistance.
While men still were fighting
and dying in Western Czechoslo-
vakia and Central Austria, guns
were silent elsewhere on both the
northern and southern fronts.
The Canadians and British NOV
ed forward, gradually occupying
Denmark, western Holland and
northwest Germany under terms
of the surrender.
The U. S. Seventh and French
First armies, like the British and
Canadians on the north and the
two American armies of the CEN
ter, found themselves without a
battle as two German armies sur
rendered at noon Sunday under
terms of capitulation announced
Saturday.
But while peace returned to the
western Austrian panhandle and
southern Bavaria, guns and tanks
churning up the countryside Of
western Czechoslovakia and north
central Austria.
From Karlsbad, 40 miles north
west of Pilsen, on southwark Field
Marshal Albert Kesselring was try
Jig to hold his thinned command
together, but with little success.
More than $1,000 prisoners were
taken Saturday.
One Patton column was fighting
20 miles south of ,Karlsbad. The
tanks that captured Pilsen had
travelled 16 miles in the early
morning and had the city of more
than 100000 mopped up by noon.
Another column turned up on the
Ottawa rivet so miles southeast Of
Pilsen.
The 26th Infantry Division storm.
ed Vltava, % miles north OF Linz
and about 80 miles southeast OF
Pilsen.
In the Linz area, 1000 Hungarian
Nazis surrendered to American
troops.
On the south flank, the list In.
fantry Division reached the Ems
river on front of more than six
miles between Ems and Steyr, II
to Is miles southeast of Linz. Other
forces were on the river 20 miles
south of Linz.
Borrowing divisions from the
Seventh Army, which is now idle
along with every other Western Al
lied force except his own, Patton
went into one Of the European
wars last battles with enough
steam to trample the eneny's Sew.
enth Army.
Formal surrender of 10000 Ger.
mans holding the cities of Amster.
dam, The Hague, Rotterdam and
Utrecht was arranged at Wagon.
ingen between 1t. Gen. Charles
Foulkes, commander of the Canad-
ian First Corps, and Field Marshal
Johannes Blaskowitz, commander
of the German armies in Western
Holland.
Under this agreement, which
formalizes the unconditional sur
render Of 1000, 900 Germans in the
north to Field Marshal Montgom.
cry last week, Utrecht will be 90.
cupied today and Rotterdam Tues.
day.
Continued on Page Two; Col. y,