The Wilmington morning star., 1945-03-21
Three Cities
Taken;;Enemy
Force Broken
Ma;nz. Worms and Zwei-
bruecken Swept Up In
Rapid Drive

PARIS. Wednesday, March al
p-The II. S. Seventh and Third
Armies formed junction in the
saarland yesterday in a great CO.
animated assault that virtually Wi
nod out the last German resistance
west of the Rhine and captured the
historic cities of Saarbruecken,
veibruecken and Worms.
Contact between the two armies
was made at a point about II
miles west of Kaiserslautern by
elements of the Seventh Army's
Sixth Armored Division and the
Third Armys 26th Infantry Di-
vision.
The Third Army, which drove
through Kaiserslautern, reached
The ancient Rhine-bank city of
M2inz.
Saarbruecken, a city of $4,000
population and the capital and &c
onomic center of the industrial
saar, fell to 1t. Gen. Alexander
M. Patch's Seventh Army as did
Zweibruecken, II miles to the east.
Worms or the Rhine about mid
way between Mainz and Ludwig
Mannheim, was seized in
lightning stab by the Fourth Ar
norsd and Goth Infantry Divisions
Of 1t. Gen. George S. Patton's'
Third Army.
The sensational drive by the two
American armies operating in uni
son disposed of the German
Seventh army and bottled up much
dhe German First army-the last
two enemy armies west of the
Rhine.
Under the unrelenting assault,
tie enemys defenses in the Saar-
land salient collapsed and Nazi
troops we're attempting to flee
eastward by the thousands under
storm of explosives from Amerl-
can Walplanes.
The fall of Saarbruecken and
weibruecken foretold the possible
swift evacuation of all Germany
west Of the Rhine.
Saarbruecken fell to the 10th Dl-
vision, which crossed the Scar,
sliced through the West Wall and
stormed the city from the west
against light opposition.
Zweibruecken fell to the Third
Division, which had preached the
west Wall after three days OF
tirece fighting.
The comparatively easy conquest
Of the two stubborn cities dramafl-
cally symbolized the complete col
lapse Of the Nazi defenses OF the
Saar-Moselle triangle.
Thousands of Germans were cap
tlred, one front dispatch saying
that the Third Army alone bagged
possibly 10000.
At the same time, German re-
sistance east of the Rhine seemed
to falte~ ard 1t. Gen Courtny H.
Hodges First Army broadened its
east bank bridgehead to "a miles
with advances measuring up to A.
900 yards.
On dav of crushing defeat for
German arms, Gen. Eisenhower
himself boldly pointed toward the
sector OF the Reich presumably
next marked for destruction,
otroadcastlng a proclamation warn
ing all German civilians and for
elgn workers to flee from the great
fuhr industrial area.
This 600-square mile region just
across the Rhine from three Al
ned armies-the U. S. Ninth, the
canadian First and British Second
is Germany's industrial heart
and no" that Silesia and the saar
nav falltn under Russian and
American avalanches is the enc
my Las. big unconquered indus
trla area.
ALe1 air forces have been
pounding the Ruhr for weeks and
y "ai battered again yesterday
a. as otrt of the mighty Western
Fron. assault.
IAa attention of medium and
ngaieroombers and fighters, how
eYe vas directed mainly at maui
,as ia7 Germans fleeing from the
oae end in wild disorder.
AaefAy Columns were bombed
az SlFafed continuously and a
s"42 900 German motor vehicles
were kAocked out with bombs
LOCI cts md bullets, adding to tn
a. a. tofets' terrific toll of the las
thres 1sys.
G ne JUNCTION of the Third ant
seventh Armies pocketed thou
sanoS q Germans in a sack tel
N"AeS iong and eight wide extend
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