Evening star., 1945-04-12
Hy the Associated Press.

Ry the Associated Press.
PARIS. April 12.-The Ameri-
can 9th Army of 1t. Gen. William
H. Simpson crossed the Elbe
River today and began beating
down the last 81 miles toward
Berlin,
The last river before the German
capital was forced by the I'd Ar
mored Hell on Wheels Division,
which blaZed more than SO miles to
Magdeburg in l2-hour dash yes
terday. The precise site of the
crossing was not announced.
A bridgehead, however, was es-
tabliShed at one undiSclosed place,
about lis miles from Russian lines.
A front dispatch said Gen. Simp-
sons men could reach the Branden-
burg Gate in Berlin by tomorrow
night or Saturday. provided the
Germans switched no tank forces
from the east. One report, however,
said the Germans indeed were
shifting their battered 9Th Panzer
Division from the eastern front.
To the south 1t Gen. George S.
Patton's Sd Army tank divisions
broke loose again and thundered
forward up to 46 miles on the ap-
proaches to Leipzig, Czechoslovakia,
and the Red Army lines.
The 18th Armored Division was
less than 40 miles from the border
of Czechoslovakia.
Gen. Patton's forces swept across
the Saale River south of Jena. The
crossings were made at points along
a 30-mile stretch by the 4th and
9th Armored Divisions.
Important Cities Fall.
Large ana important cities top
pied all along the western front in
the last "a hours Among them were
SchweinflTt, Weimar. Nordhausen,
Halberstadt. Emmen in Holland,
Neustadt, Essen, Coburg and, by
German account, the Ruhr coal and
steel center Of Bochum.
Besieged and falling were Bruns-
wick, Dortmund, Heilbronn and
Erfurt. The Germans said Bremen
was under all-out British assault;
the 9th Army imminently threat
ened Magdeburg.
One report placed American tanks
near Halle, Is miles from Leipzig
Infantry following the swift tanks
of the Sd Army beat to within 40
miles of Leipzig and 95 miles of
Dresden. A junction with the Rus
slams may come between those two
great SaXony cities within a week
Both the Sd Army and the lst Army
were driving for Leipzig.
Planes destroyed or disabled l20
German tanks near Halle.
The phantom 9th and 4th
Armored Divisions of the Sd Army
are stabbing deeper into what re-
mains of the heart of Germany"
Associated Press Correspondent
Thoburn Want was allowed to re-
port through the Sd Army security
blackout. 1T can be said that the
present armored stabS are much like
those made by the Sd Army in the
past-sudden. swift and sensa-
tional"
Yanks May Be Veering South.
The censorship ban suggested that
the Sd Army might be veering south
ward to cut routes into the national
redoubt in the Bavarian Alps, where
Hitler has planned his last opera
ton gotterdammerung.'
All the North Germans ports were
menaced. The Canadians launched
a drive into Western Holland against
thousands of trapped Germans
Ninth and 1st Army Divisions whit
tied down the Ruhr pocket and its
garrisons of up to 100000 German
troops.
The crossing of the Elbe was the
first time it had been forced since
Napoleon did it more than a GEN.
tury ago.
Tanks crossed the 450-foot river
by means which censorship would
not permit to be divulged. The COM
mander of the Hell on Wheels"
Division, Maj. Gen. Isaac D. White of
Peterborough, N. H., and Des Moines,
ordered his Sherman tanks across
onto the open plains leading to