Evening star., 1945-03-21
Patton Closing on Ludwigshafen;
y. S. Flyers Hit II Jap Warships
Enemy Believed
Unable to Rally
For Major Stand
MAP on Page A-3.)
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
PARIS, Mar. 21.-The German
debacle in the Saarland and
Palatinate appeared likely today
to cost Hitler's badly bled forces
close to 100000 casualties as the
United States Sd Army closed to
within 5 miles of the great
chemical center of LudWigsha-
fen-Mannheim and fought inside
Mainz.
Two German armies, the lst and
7th, either were wiped out or
doomed except for scattered ele-
mentS.
At supreme Allied headquarters it
was estimated that 1t. Gen. George
S. Patton's Sd Army alone had
herded an estimated 10000 Nazis
into prison pens in 48 hours as it
and 1t. Gen. Alexander NJ Patch's
7th Army closed new traps which
might boost the overall total of cap
tured in the whirlwind campaign
to $4,000
The 7th Army, driving up from
the southern bases of the Saarland
and Palatinate. did not even tabu-
late its prisoners beyond the first
5000.
Rich Saar VALLEY Won.
The rich Saar Valley. with its
steel mills and vast coal deposits.
was won, taking from Germany her
third largest industrial sector.
Important cities such as Saar-
bruecken population 135,0OO, Kais-
erslautern {61 1,000). Worms 100000
Voelklingen (31,000l and Zwei-
bruecken $4,000 were captured by
the surging American Sd and 7th
Armies.
Some divisions advanced Is miles
or more day. The destruction of
the German forces was so complete
it seemed doubtful that Hitler's
army could rally for a stand in
strength east of the Rhine-where
greater offensives currently were in
the making.
Extension of the American 1st
Army'S East Rhine bridgehead to a
deployment area at least 25 miles
long and up to miles wide under
scored the clear-cut threat to the
Ruhr, invaded on the west and
threatened by 1t. Gen. Courtney H.
Hodges troops, who captured Beuel,
Bonn suburb IA miles south of the
Ruhr. Gen. Eisenhower warned that
the RRhr, the source of IS per cent
of allAGerman war production in
1912, was next in line of conquest.
Lack of Nazi Power Apparent.
Already the lack of punching
power east of the Rhine was appar-
ent in German ranks. Prisoners
plodded dejectedly to the rear in un-
counted thousands. The enemy had
thrown the best troops saved from
the 1st Parachute and 9th Panzer
Armies at the Remagen bridgehead
and failed to check its expansion.
The enemy was falling back on
the narrow Sieg and Wied Rivers,
plainly despairing of driving the
Americans from the east bank of
the Rhine.
To the north, the American 9th,
British I'd and Canadian 1st Armies
stood in strength opposite the cities
Of Dusseldorf and Duisburg and
engaged in vigorous patrolling over
the wide reaches of the Lower
Rhine. Weather was favorable and
improving daily.
Gen. Patch's 7th Army captured
at least nine cities and towns after
forging the trap around the Saar-
land in conjunction with Gen.
Patton's 3rd Army II miles west
were squeezing German stragglers
in a double pincers
Among places captured were Me
derwuerbach, Hassel. Kirkel, the
producing city of st. Ingbert
(23,000) and Homburg t26000, on
the eastern boundary OF the Saar-
land.
More Prisoners Added.
Up to yesterday Gen. Patton's Sd
Army had inflicted $4,000 casual
ties on the German 1st and 7th
Armies. He added 1929 prisoners to
that yesterday and still had 10000
awaiting transport to cages. The
7th Army, serving as an anvil for
Gen. Patton's hammer blows from
the north, had captured 6,040 pris-
oners by yesterday and inflicted
some thousands more casualties in
killed and wounded.
Scores on scores of lesser villages
fell to both armies. At least three
pockets of Germans lay behind Al
lied lines awaiting death or capture.
The largest trap was a Saarland
pocket of less than 80 square miles
around Saarbruecken; lesser pockets
were near Traven and east of Kirn.
At the pace Gen. Patton's tanks
were travelling, it was reasonable to
expect that the vanguards would
reach the Ludwigshafen-M Mannheim
area before dusk. The twin cities on
the Rhine have combined popula-
ton of 427000. Ludwigshafen, 143,-
600, is on the west bank and Mann
helm is on the east.
Others Within Artillery Range.
Other great German cities were
either in or almost within artillery
range. Frankfurt (546,649) was 18
miles away; Weisbaden 172,O39} is
miles across the Rhine from
Mainz. Speyer (25,00O, capital of
the Palatinate, was Is miles from
the Sd Army The 7th Army was in
the steel mill town of Voelklingen
$4,000 and both armies were in
vesting Nemkirchen f40,500). Karls-
ruhe 100000 was miles across the
Nine additional men from
the District area hare been