The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-05-06
FOE SURRENDERS
AUSTRIAN ARMY
Continued from Page One)

Continued from Page One)
tons troops were "a to q miles
west of the arsenal city of Pilsen,
which in turn is so miles west of
Prague.
AS American tank columns
roared across the border they &C.
cepted surrender of the 18th Pan
Ter Division, the last, full-strength
elite armored force of the Ger
man army in all Europe.
The attack rolled east along
front extending from a point 30
miles northwest of Linz to the city
Of Asch in the Sudetenland.
Five divisions went over to the
attack, and advanced columns
were battling both west and south
west of Pilsen.
After Linz fell, the 18th Armor-
ed and 26th Infantry Divisions cap
tured a bridge across the Danube,
rolled on across and captured the
twin city of Urfahr.
Thus, the Third Army laid bare
Czechoslovakia' south flank and
paved the way for an early linkup
with the Russians fighting through
Austria west of Vienna.
Gen. Devers, emerging from the
surrender conference near Mu-
mich, told correspondents ''it's all
over on my front"
To avoid unnecessary bloodshed,
both the American and German
commanders broadcast to their
troops to cease firing at once, al
though the order does not become
effective until noon Sunday.
1t. Gen. Foertsch, commander
of the German First Army, sur
rendered Army group &C" on or
ders of its commander, Gen. Freid-
rich Schultz, and Field Marshal AL
bert Kesselring, commander of all
enemy forces in the south.
Kesserling thereupon found him
self in command of only a single
army, the Seventh.
Supreme Headquarters comment
ing on the surrender said so great
is the confusion among the enemy
that the German officer present at
the negotiation. could not give
an accurate estimate of the
strength of Army Group C..
"She believes it. numbers be-
tween two and four hundred thou
sand He reported that the army
itself has food for some days but
the local population of some two
and one-half million is facing star
walton conditions.
Devers, 1t. Gen. Alexander M.
Patch, commander of the U. S.
Seventh Army, and other officers
met Foertsch in an art museum
belonging to Prof. Thorak, Hit
ler's favorite sculptor, near Haar,
at the eastern outskirts of Munich.
Patton and 1t. Gen. Jean de Lat
ire de Tassigny, commander Of the
French First Army, also had been
invited to attend but their planes
were grounded by bad weather.
Actually, a front dispatch said,
the surrender was but formality
because the Germans were surren-
dering by the tens of thousands, or
wandering around trying to find
some one to capture them.
Troops in Italy were rounding up
other thousands of Germans who
came up to surrender with their
guns and other weapons intact.
The German First Army had
been facing the U. S. Third and
Seventh armies in the area from
Linz to Innsbruck, and the 10Th ar
my from Innsbruck westward to
the Swiss frontier in the French
First Army sector.
Actually, however, the 10Th army
had been split when the Seventh
Army broke through Bremen Pass
into Italy, and the capitulation
mainly tfected the central Aus
TRAN front.
The surrender did not necessari-
1y affect any German troops lined
up again.. the Russians east Of
Linz and up through middle Czech
oslovakia Supreme Headquarters
had no information on the strength
of these forces nor the state of
their resistance.
The surrender, coupled with
those in the north, boosted the en-
envy prisoner total close to 1,500,-
900 in three days.
The French First Army announc-
ed it also had captured the Ger
man oath army. It proved to be a
headquarters somewhere east of
the Swiss border without an opera
tional division attached to it.
Supreme Headquarters first an
nounced that the surrender in the
south included the German Seventh
as we'll as the First and Nineteen
tn, which would have embraced all
the Third Army front.
An hour later, correspondents
were called back and Eisenhower
himself issued corrective state
ment saying that the Seventh ar
my arrayed in Czechoslovakia was
not included.
The situation was almost as con-
fused for a time in the north,
where despite the unconditional
surrender, a few German die-hards
diminished briefly with 1t. Gen.
Miles c. Dempsey's British Second
Army troops as they entered Co.
penhagen's city. hall square.
The Royal Air Force still flew
relentless patrol over the waters
around Denmark, reporting they
destroyed or damaged 81 addition