The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1945-04-27

| parent bid to outflank BerchteS-
gaden from the northeast and link
up with the Red Army in the Dam
ube valley
1t was the ninth European coun-
try entered by American Armies in
World War II. The tide of Amer
lean military power already had
rolled over Italy, France, Belgium,
Luxembourg, Holland, Czechoslo-
vakia, Germany and the tiny prin-
cipality of Monaco.
The Third Army alone had fought
over all but Italy, Monaco and Hol-
! land since its activation last sum-
mer.
IS Miles From Juncture
Patton'S men made the crossing
just south of the Austro- German
Czechoslovak border triangle. IS
miles northwest Of Linz and IS miles
from junctue with the Red Army
on the Danube west of Vienna.
The Germans boasted battle
screen along the northern and west
ern fringes Of the Alpine Citadel
melted away before the twin drives
OF the American Third and Seventh
Armies.
Isolated Nazi Elite Guards units
fought back bitterly at few points
along the Danube, particularly in
the almost-encircled fortress of
Regensburg, but elsewhere they
We're Keeling back into the mountain
passes leading to Hitler's Berchees-
gaden hideout.
AT the same time, the Seventh
Army sent hundreds of tanks and
armored troop carriers through the
enemy defenSes west and north
west of Munich at a pace that
threatened to bring the Nazis' Holy
City" under siege in a matter of
hours.
Late dispatches placed the Yanks
only rs miles west of Munich, ap-
parently having by-passed Lands
berg, where Hitler was jailed after
the failure Of his beer-hall putsch
In 1928 and where he wrote "Mein
Kampf.'
Patton's Third Army troops also
were pounding down on Munich
from the north after winning their
fourth Danube crossing at Ingol-
stadt, 40 miles from the Nazi strong
hold.
The Third Army was up to or
across the Danube on an 8O-mile
front stretching eastward from In
golstadt to Deggendorf, while its
left wing was closing swiftly on the
river in the Austro- German border
area farther to the east.
With one blacked-o out Third Armv
column moving against the Danu-
blan fortress of Passau, on the
Austrian frontier only Ct miles
north OF Berchtesgaden, two other
fast task forces of the 18th Armor-
ed Division sheered off suddenly to
hit the border 20 miles farther north
east.
One broke across the frontier
near the Austrian border village of
SchWarzenberg, SO miles north
northwest of Berchtesgaden and IS
miles northwest of Linz. The second
entered Gegenbach, few miles far
Their south and only a mile west of
the border.
Gegenbach Entered
Almost $50 miles to the SOUTH
west, the American Seventh Army
broke loose on a terrific armored
sweep that all but enveloped the
fortress city of Augsburg and rolled
on within Is miles of Munich.
The Seventh Armys plunging
tanks swamped the stubborn Nazi
defenses in the rugged triangle be-
tween the Iller and Danube rivers
and piled up gains of as much as 10
miles in a matter of hours.
Still farther west, the French First
Army ground steadily eastward along
the studded German Swiss
frontier, caving in the western flank
OF the Bavarian redoubt at a rapid
pace. The border city of Konstanz
was reported in French hands.
At the top of the western front,
British Second Army troops combed
through the ruins of Bremen to root
out and destroy a few fanatical
Nazi units holed up in Burgher park
on the city'S northeastern outskirts.
Practically all of Bremen was