The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-04-13
Armored Divisions Reach Elbe River
Ccontinusd from Page D

fhe German radio said it had ad- fanced another 2s miles to 0arde- Iegen, a miles west of the Elbe and @ miles from Berlin.
 On the southern flank of the Ninth Army, the Ninth and Third Armored Divisions of Lieutenant General Courtney Hodges Amer Iean First Army kicked of at dawn in a new offensive push toward Leipzig.
 The armored columns by-passed Wiessenfels, l6 miles southwest of Leipzig, while the 69th Infantry Di- vision battled against stiff oppost- ton in Weissenfels itself.
 Setting up a pincers on Leipzig, one tank column punched through to Halle. IT miles northwest of Leip- zig and only 1l5 miles from a junc- ton with the Red Army.
 In the past 24 hours, the First Army had rolled up gains of up to 3s miles, though forward spearheads advanced only IS. A total of 26, l48 prisoners was taken.
 Lieutenant General George s. 4atton's Third Army crashed east yard on an 80-mile front just south of the First Army.
 One of Patton's tank columns drove six miles beyond the Sasle liver into Runthal, IT miles south vest of Leipzig, 70 miles west of Dresden and 99 miles southwest of Berlin.
 Another pushed three miles be- yond the Saale and entered Droys- Sig, six miles south of Runthal. Al- together, the Third Army had feached or crossed the Saale along c 40-mile front.
 Some forces entered Jena, indus trial city astride the Saale and mid- way in Patton's front.
 At the southern end of the Third Army's secot, the 11th Armored division cleared Kronach in a seven mile advance to within 34 miles of the Czechoslovak border. A BEG Broadcast said this column was only 17 miles from the border.
 Some 43 miles behind the ad- vance Spearheads, the Third Army's S0th Infantry Division cleared Er- furt last evening.
 The Third Army captured an esti- mated 10,600 prisoners yesterday.
 The French First Army south of Karlsruhe captured Rastatt, 45 miles west of Stuttgart, and Baden Baden, 41 miles west, taking 1000 ptisonerS.
 Far behind the Berlin bound Amer ican spearheads, U. s. First and Ninth Army troops were cutting up the Ruhr pocket. German resistance appeared to be collapSing rapidly. Field dispatches said the pocket now measured less than two-fifths of it's original size.
 O0ly IT miles separated the First Army troops battling along the Rhine side of the pocket from the Ninth Army on the northeastern corner. More than 8O,000 of the 15O,- 600 Germans originally in the trap already had been captured. And the prisoner bag was mounting hourly.
 Pocket Collapsing
 Berlin Spokesmen described the collapsing pocket as an "ear-split- ting hell' of bursting bombs and shells with savage hand -to-hand lighting raging through a dozen towns and cities.
 MGerman marines rushed down nom Hamburg battled fiercely to check the British Second Army drive through the Bremen-Hann over corridor toward Hamburg, but late dispatches. said the Tommies had won three solid bridgeheads across the Aller river within 50 miles or less of the port.
 sgCelle, 19 miles northeast of Ham, over and 63 miles south of Ham, burg. was captured by Scottish trops on the Second Army's eastern flank, along with 8 highway bridge over the Aller.
 Other British units still stabbing toward Hamburg beyond the Aller in the Schwarmstedt and Rethen sectors farther west. While heavy fighting continued on the southern outskirts of Bremen.
 Canadian First Army forces on