Evening star., 1945-04-10
MAP on Page A-4.)

BY the Associated Press.
PARIS, April 10.-Allied armies
today were encircling burning
Hanover, beSieging Bremen and
wheeling along the North Ger
man Plain within l27 miles of
Berlin.
Canadians fought along the Ems
River to within Is miles of the North
Sea and 25 miles of the Dollart Bay
port of Emden. Field Marshal
Montgomerys northern armies were
within so miles of sealing off the
entire Northwest German port belt.
The nearest approach to the cap
ital was an American 9th Amy ad-
vance to an unspecified poMpfast of
Hidesheim but les"L t:iap miles
from the aircraftT tTe.iteN3a Bruins
wick. Gen. Omar N. Bradley has
three American armies lined up on
long Central German stretch
within 127 to 140 miles of Berlin.
Hanover was deeply outflanked
from the north and south by divi-
sions of the American 9th and Brit
lsh I'd Armies.
Tanks Pushing East.
The Germans said American tanks
Immediately north of Hanover
were pushing east from Steinhuder
Nicer and had advanced to a point
midway between Hanover and
Celle," % miles northeast of the
Prussian traffic center.
The Germans said yesterday the
Americans had pushed north around
Lehrte, 10 miles east of Hanover.
BY enemy account, they we're less
than miles from completely en-
circling the city of 472 ,527.
1T becomes increasingly clear that
the enemy intends to encircle Ham,
over completely" the Germans said
early this afternoon.
The Germans said the American
Sd Army had broken loose again on
its right flank, surging from Thur
ingia into Bavaria to Rodach, 10
miles northwest of Coburg and So
miles from Czechoslovakia. The town
is IS miles northwest of Nuremberg
Gen. Bradley's 1st and Sd Armies
were within $50 miles of Russian
lines and in ideal tank country,
where Germany may be cut in two.
Gelsen- Kirchen Captured.
His 9th Army captured the Ruhr
industrial center of Gelsen-Kirchen,
which has a population of $4,000.
The 9th also captured the ruined
Krupp works in Essen and virtually
surrounded that city of 100000 while
fighting in its streets.
Both Bremen and Hanover are
great prizes. Bremen is Germany's
second port, a Focke-Wulf plane
producer and submarine base
Hanover is meeting place of five
railroads and seven main highways
and producer of aircraft, guns
tanks, trucks and four-ffths of
Germany's sirplane tires.
The whole Allied front was aimed
at the Elbe River, so miles away
at Hamburg and less than 10 miles
at Madgeburg. The river is the last
before Berlin.
The 9th Army on the high road to
Berlin was less than 20 miles from
Brunswick; the Sd Army was S
miles fron Erfurt; the 7th was 4
miles from Schweinfurt, and the
French were miles from Stuttgart.
The Ruhr trap was squeezed
down to less than $500 square miles,
death trap so miles long and so
wide were holding tens of thousands
of Nazis. Fighting ragged in the
streets Of Dortmund (537,0OO for
the third day.
No Sign of Massed Strength.
The total bag of prisoners from
the Ruhr pocket rose to more tnar
25,000 as the 18th Division captured
Olpe, 13 miles north of Siegen, where
the Germans had been reported con-
centrating tanks and troops for a
counterattack. Resistance, however,
was light and there was no sign of
massed strength.
More than $4,000 square miles has
been hacked from Western Ger
many and Allied armored spear
heads are jabbing deeper. Gen.
Eisenhower tanks were roaming
about the Reich virtually at will;
the shattered Wehrmacht-dra
by 100000 casulties in 10 days and
by the entrapment of 10000 more
in the Ruhr and Holland-was fight
ing by day and running by night.
Hamburg, Germany's second CITY.
of 1852, ,220. was less than so miles
from Allied vanguards, and the port
SeDen additional men from