Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-03-19
Rich SuurIund
Rapidly Turning
Into Death Trop
MAP on Page A-3.J
By the Associated Press.

PARIS, Mar. l9.-An estimated
10000 Germans ran for the
Rhine today in desperate day
light retreat under perfect
strafing weather which turned
the northern half of the Bava-
rian Palatinate into a slaughter
ground and the rich Saarland
into a death trap.
Swift tank and infantry columns
of the American Sd and 7th Armies
surged within Is miles of each other
between ST. Wendell and the Zwei-
brueeken areas of the Saarland and
within ~ miles of junction farther
west in the Palatinate.
Tanks advanced within IA miles
of Mainz on the bend of the Rhine.
This was the last debacle west of
the Rhine and the German 1st and
It'll Armies were losing terrific num-
bers of men and machines in their
rout.
1t. Gen. George S. Pattons Sd
Army threatened the great Rhine
Valley cities of Mainz, Frankfurt
on-the-Main, Weisbaden, Ludwigs-
hafen and Mannheim.
Yanks Drive Into ST. Wendell.
His assault troops crashed into St.
Wendell, closing all but the eastern
end of death box Is miles long and
Is miles wide along the whole Saar
line.
From the south. 1t. Gen. Alex
ander M. Patch's 7th Army jabbed
through the Siegfried Line east of
Saarbruecken and pushed into Wis
sembourg and the French corner
town of Lauterbourg, 9 miles from
karlsruhe.
Between them, Gen. Patton and
Gen. Patch were using at least 81
divisions, hard hitting and heavily
armored, of about $4,000 troops.
North of the two powerful assault
armies. the LIST Army fought slowly
to expand its Is by mile East
Rhine bridgehead beyond the COL
lapsed but repairable Ludendorff
Bridge at Remagen.
1t. Gen. Courtney H. Hodges
troops were within II miles of the
Ruhr and hard on the edge of fiat
tank country leading to that great
est OF European industrial centers.
Another 80 Miles Captured.
Gen. Patton's hard-hitting Sd
Army won another 80 miles of the
west Rhine bank from Coblenz to
captured Bingen, leaving the Ger
mans only about 40 miles of the
west bank from Bingen to north of
Strasbourg. The enemy held an
other 50-mile stretch from Mime
gen to the North Sea. A report from
Marshal Montgomery headquarters
in the north. however. said:
THE Germans seemingly are
clearing out of the long-held area
north of Nijmegen. Our patrols
pushed forward north of Soften and
into the vicinity of Randwyk on the
south side of the Upper Rhine with
out encountering many Germans"
The Sd Army's 4th Armored Di-
vision-led by Maj. Gen. Hugh
Gaffey-captured Sprendlingen and
moved closest to Mainz, city of
$4,000 which lies on the Rhine at
the mouth of the Main River south
east of Coblenz and Remagen. The
10th Armored Division drove within
10 miles northwest of Kaiserslau-
tern, a German base of $1,000 in
the Palatinate.
The 7th Army, moving more slow
ly but up to 6 miles a day through
Siegfried Line Notifications between
besieged Saarbruecken and the
Rhine, closed within &c miles of
kalserslautern. The 7th threw
tanks into the battle for the first
time.
The Sd Army captured Dillingen
in its drive to link with 7th Army
troops fighting in the Zweibruecken
area.
The swift advances of Gen. Hatch's
14th Armored Division were clear
ing swiftly the last bits of Eastern
France. Altendstadt near Wissem-
bourg was made in a dash down the
Rhine clearing IS miles of it's west
bank north of Strasbourg.
Cross Border at New Points.
Between Lauterbourg and Saar-
bruecken, the It'll Army entered Ger
many at several new points. The
enemy chung stubbornly to what re-
mains of the Siegfried Line in the
Saarbruecken and Zweibruecken
areas.
The 7th Army also recaptured
Bottenbach. miles west of the
major Palatinate base of Pirmasens
(47,20O).
The German retreat was so con-
fused and disorderly, that tanks.
self-propelled guns and artillery
were being abandoned.
The American LIST Army, firmly
ensconsed east of the Rhine beyond
Remagen, moved north, south and
east IN bridgehead which supreme
Allied headquarters said was Is
miles long and 8 miles wide. Pom
toon bridges across the Rhine DOW
cred this attack, which already was
within small arms range of the
Rhine Plain east of Bonn and Bad
Godesberg, leading to the Ruhr.
Great fleets of American planes
supported the tanks and infantry.
The day dawned clear with as good
bombing and strafing weather as
Yesterday when great havoc was in
nlcted on the fleeing Germany LIST
Army.
Towns by the score and cities
mere and there fell to the Sd Army