The Wilmington morning star., 1945-03-01
First Crosses
Erft River At
Three Points
Enemy Resistance Stiffens
Against Canadians In !,
The North |

PARIS, Feb. 28-(REGen. Eisen-
hower's rampant Western Front
offensive smashed to within 6 IL
miles of the great INDUSTRIAL city
of Cologne today with the US.
First Army making three crossings
of the shallow Erft river near
Modrath.
There were indications that the
Germans we're being forced to
withdraw from their positions west
of the Rhine as tanks and infan-
try of 1t. Gen. Hodges First Ar
my went crashing through the
main defenses guarding Cologne
and other Allied forces pressed
their assault all along the front.
The U. S. Ninth Army continued
to close around the big railway
center of Northumberland, but
the exact movements of these
troops remained masked behind a
security news blackout. Front dis
patches said Simpsons doughboys
were advancing with great speed
in some places and slowly at 9TH
ers. The Germans threw in King
Tiger tanks, their latest and most
powerful armor, in an attempt to
halt the Americans.
Enemy resistance stiffened
against the Canadian First Army,
which was held to an advance Of
about mile in the north. Even SO
it was reported Field Marshal Won
Rundstedt had Withdrawn some Of
the German defenders from this
end of the front with the obvious
intent of trying to bolster the en-
envy line in the center, where
the industrial metropolis Of Dues
seldorf was being imminently
threatened as well as Cologne.
"Task Force Church," the light
ming column of infantry and armor
which drove 10 miles yesterday in
a thanking thrust past Muenchen-
Gladbach and which threatened to
plunge into the heart of the Ruhr
industrial region, was reported to
have met stiffening resistance to-
day. The extent of its progress be-
You'd Waldniel, which it reached
last night, was not revealed.
Fighting was reported in pro-
.gress in the outskirts of Muenchen-
Gladbach, nine miles from Dues
seldorf and probably the biggest
German rail hub west of the Rhine
AS doughboys and armor deep
ened the bridgeheads across the
Erft and additional forces poured
up to the stream on a wide front,
indications mounted that the Nazis
were making only rearguard
fight before the Rhine and were to-
tally incapable of hating the pow
erhouse American drive.
Pilots reported columns of enc.
my transport streaming toward the
Rhine and an American officer de-
clared the enemy was withdraw
ing his artillery toward the broad
stream which guards the heart Of
Germany.
Thousands of German prisoners
were being taken, all the fight
knocked out of them by six days
of ceaseless battering. 1t was the
greatest rout since Normandy.
There now was nothing between
the First Army and -blackened
Cologne expect open plain. Engi-
neers worked under fire during the
day strengthening bridges across
the Erft to carry hundeds of tanks
into the fight.
The famous First Infantry Divi.
sion was among units participating
in the drive on Cologne, now clear
ly within sight of the advancing
forces and under heavy fire Of
American artillery.
The Nazis threw three counter.
attacks against the bridgeheads
during the day, but all were re.
pulsed by First Army infantry,
tanks and tank destroyers. Veter-
an American officers declared Ger.
man artillery fire against the
bridgeheads was the heaviest en-
countered since the present often
sive began.
Thousands of German civilian
refugees were reported streaming
into Dusseldorf ahead of the Ninth
Army's avalanche. More than 80.
600 prisoners had been captured
by the American First and Ninth
and the Canadian First Armies in
their sweeps toward the Rhine.
Tank led" Canadian infantry
Continued on Page Three; Col. u