Evening star., 1945-03-07
Great Drive for Berlin Launched
BY Reds at Oder> Germans Say;
Patton IS Miles From Cob|enz
Other Americans
Only 3 Miles
From Bonn
MAP OF Page A-5.J

tMUP W IuSC A-O/
BY the Associated Press.
PARIS, Mar. THE American
Sd Army drive today routed the
Germans to within Is miles OF
the Middle Rhine at Coblenz
while the 1st Army fought with
in 3 miles of Bonn, IS miles south
of fallen Cologne.
On this anniversary of Hitler's
militarization of the now overrur
Rhineland, the prisoner toll for all
Allied armies on the western front
passed the million mark and rose
above 100000 for the current cam
paign which started January 30 with
1t. Gen George S. Patton's plunge
into the Siegfried Line east oi
Luxembourg.
A graveyard of German cities
stretched from Cologne SO miles back
to the Reich frontier. Soon after
that fourth city of Germany fell
late yesterday, the American 1st ano
9th Armies cleared the whole west
bank of the Rhine from Rheinberg
south to Cologne, except for frac-
tional pocket of IONS, just south OF
Dusseldorf. The distance was 45
airline miles, but nearer 10 miles as
the Rhine flows.
Last Big Bridgehead Erased.
The last sizable German bridge
head west of the Lower Rhine op-
poslte Wesel was hammered down
to strip miles long and up to
S miles wide On Monday, $4,000
Germans were estimated to be in
the pocket. Many have fled, but now
the last two bridges at Wesel are
virtually impossible.
Nazi troopers who survived the
debacle of Cologne fled south along
the Rhine toward Bonn, city
of 100000 and the birthplace of
Beethoven. The lst Army's 9th
Division fought at dawn in the
village of Alften, only miles from
Bonn.
Like Cologne, Bonn lies almost
defenseless on the west bank of
the Rhine.
Nazi Commander Captured.
Maj. Gen. Hugh Gaffeys 4th
Armored Division approached the
Middle Rhine in the Coblenz area
after a 37-mile sweep since early
Monday. His tanks and infantry
captured vast stores of booty
stacked for miles along the road and
captured the commander of the
German SD Corps, 1t. Gen. Graf
Won Rothkirk, who plaintively COM
nented:
How can you expect to win war
when you have no gasoline and no
horses? 1t will all be over within
four months-five months at the
latest"
The exact spot where Gen. Gaffey
was nearest the Middle Rhine was
not Immediately announced. Gen.
sorship prevented naming the towns
he overran in his smile overnight
advance from a point 20 miles from
Coblenz, communications point and
occupation headquarters for Ameri-
cans after the World War.
The Sd Army dash toward the
Rhine outfanked the Saar indus
trial district from the north, just
as the 7th Army outf1anked it from
the south.
Thousands of Prisoners.
Prisoners were taken by the
thousands. The whole German
line in the rugged Eifels was COL
lapsing. Third Army losses were
extremely light, Associated Press
Correspondents Edward D. Ball and
Thoburn Want wirelessed.
The 4th Armored Division, a star
unit of the Sd Army, was plunging
toward the Rhine in narrow cor
ridor-sometimes only the width of
understanding like a crooked
finger northeastward from the Kyll
bridgehead east of Bitburg. In
fantry followed this division in
vehicles of all descriptions.
The captured Gen. Rothkirk was
the commander who besieged
Bastogne in Belgium and who got
the epic reply of Nuts" from Brig.
(now Maj) Gen. Anthony c. Nc
Auliffe of Washington to his de-
mand for surrender of the 101st
Air-Borne Division. The 4th Ar
mored Division which captured the
general and his staff was the same
which broke the Bastogne siege.
AS the 4th raced toward the
Rhine, the 5th Infantry Division
widened the corridor farther back.
Scores of towns were taken. Most
of their, names were withheld under
the continuing Sd Army blackout.
Cologne and it's vast ruins was the
largest German city to fall either
in this war or the last. It had a
peacetime population of 5000.
Though shattered by repeated bomb
ings, it still is the greatest traffic
center in Western Germany and
was the site of vast and varied in
dustries. Surprisingly, most Ger
mans appeared friendly as conquer
ing tanks and foot troops moved
through its streets
Cologne was British occupation
headquarters between 1918 and jan
uary 81, 1926. 1t was one of the
first cities into which Hitler sent
his wehrmacht on March 7, 1896,
scrapping the Treaty of Versailles.
Its five bridges across the 1900 to
1,700-foot Rhine have peen wrecked.
Supreme Allied headquarters had
no official information about condi-
tions in the ruined city of Cologne,
but front dispatches indicated that
the great spired Gothic cathedral
stood only slightly damaged in a
sea Of surrounding devastation.
First Army headquarters said a
few snipers and remnant Germans
still were being mopped up in
Cologne, but the Is square miles Of
/ Three additional men from
| the District area hare been
reported killed in this ,oar. See
"On the Honor Roll" Page A-2.
(See WESTERN FRONT, Page A-4)