The Wilmington morning star., 1945-03-23
|Ludwiigshafen
||AndMaiinzAre
|Cleared0fFoe
Imminent Drive On Ruhr
Valley Preceded By {.
Air Assault III

AL AoSouA fSaH
J PARIS, March 22-(P)-Two U. s.
armies crushed all major resis.
lance west Of the Rhine today in
the last phase of battle that cost
the Germans 100000 captives alone
and the enemy said the river bar
rier was about to be stormed
both from the Palatinate and op.
posite the Ruhr, which was blast.
ed by thousands of warplanes.
One German report said 1t. Gen.
George S. Patton's Third Army
had massed 800 regular and am
phibious tanks and strong engine
ering and motorized units for 4
smash into the mountainous inner
core of the Reich.
Another declared that Field Mar.
shall Sir Bernard L. Montgomery
had opened a thunderous artillery
barrage to screen a Rhine crossing
west of Vessel, adding to destruc-
ton wrought by the thousands Of
warplanes which throughout the
day sowed ruin through the Ruhr
Valley.
Third Army strategists now were
frse to plan the crossing Ut the
Rhine, for possibly no more than
1000 German electives remained
in action west of the stream after
one Of the worst disasters ever
x,;r;+oJ m Carrpayo arms
Written off were the great Rhine
cities of Mainz and LudWigshafen,
where resistance folded during the
day and the few defenders were
chased into corners from which
there was no retreat, with the
Rhine bridges blown.
Third Army banners foated over
100 miles of the Rhine's west bank
from LudWigshafen to Coblenz, and
acing arInor was five miles from
Speyer and 10 from Karlsruhe.
the main roads back for the batter
ed German band--all that remains
of two German armies once more
than 100000 strong.
The U. 6. First Army moved up
into position to outflank the Ruhr
from the south, widening its Re-
magen bridgehead to 20 miles and
deepening it to nine against light
to moderate opposition.
The First Army now held nina
miles of the south bank of the Sie2
river northeast of Bonn within
dozen miles of the Ruhr's south
rim. Southwark its bridgehead
reached within seven and a half
miles of Coblenz, on the west bank,
where the Third Army sits in firm
control.
The German defense lines crun.
pied early today in Mainz, which
fanatic SIS troops had tried to turn
into an island of resistance in Z
sea of almost unsurpassed destruc.
ton.
They had impressed police and
firemen and unlimbered anti-tank
and self-propelled guns and held
out for two days, but the Goth di.
vision shattered their lines with an
early morning barrage Of great
ferocity and then broke through.
BY mid-afternoon, Mainz was
more than IS per cent cleared and
the Germans had been driven back
into the old town, which covers
only 2. small area in the hart Of the
city.
The Oath Division to the south
battled to rout the last sniperS
from the great chemical center Of
Ludwigshafen.
The battle west Of the Rhine,
which will carry out Gen. Eis,an-
hoWer's orders to destroy every
German short of the big river bar
irer, was being carried to swift
conclusion by the u. S. Third and
Seventh Armies.
The Tenth Armored Division Of
the Third Army was tanning out,
one column spearlng six mileg
southeast to near Gommersheim.
seven miles west of Speyer and
only 10 miles northwest Of Karls-
ruha.
The pincers was being clamped
on Speyer. The Tenth, after cap
turing the steel city Of Neustadt
pushed on into BOIL, six miles
northwest of Speyer, whose bridge
the German radio was calling to
the beaten troops to escape be-
fore it was too late.
Patton's mystery tank division
which first penetrated Ludwigsha-
fen left the mop-up of that city to
the Gath Infantry Division and
speared on south to within five
miles of Speyer on the NORTH.
simultaneously, the Tenth SEM
Confined On Page Two, Col. a