Evening star., 1945-02-23
Tanks ReportedSentAcross
Volcano Capture Aids Two Drive
Initial Advances
T otoI Z Miles,
Germans Assert
BY the Associated Press.

Os thc faocOSldtcO IICSS
PARIS, Feb. 23.-G er m a r
broadcasts asserted today tha'
Gen. Eisenhower had launched
his great offensive toward the
Ruhr and the Rhine, crossing the
Roer River with tanks and in
fantry on both sides of Linnich
river bastion % miles west oil
Cologne.
The Germans said the Allies hao
bridged the Roer at several places
and had advanced 2 miles east OF
the river, They said the main
bridgeheads were established at Bir-
kendorf, Gevenich and Selgersdorf
Hours after the German reports
there was no confirmation at su-
preme headquarters of any new
major attack.
The Germans said the offensive
was on 35-mile front all the way
from Roermond to Dueren, the out
skirts of which were reached. The
enemy communique said the Amer
ican 9Th Army attacked after the
heaviest artillery fire" and radio
reports said the American tanks
were striking down the Is miles
toward Dueren, attempting to roll
up Nazi lines east of the Roer which
have checked the Allies since De-
Cember.
Good Weather Returns.
The British I'd Army, last reported
in the Roermond area, where the
Roer flows into the Meuse, was said
by Berlin to be fighting alongside
the Canadians in the Goch- Rhine
sector farther north.
Fogs which blotted out parts of
the battlefield at dawn gave way to
good weather. An early wave of
takeoffs indicated the Germans were
in for another paralyzing bombing
onslaught such as yesterdays.
Both south and north of the Roer
sector, the American Sd and. Ca
madam 1st Armies made gains. Still
farther south, the American 7th
Army moved to within a mile and
half of the Saar capital of Saar-
bruecken and won two-thirds of
Forbach.
Advance in Mesellc Valley.
1t. Gen. George S. Patton's Sd
Army advanced up to 21a miles in
the Moselle Valley and to within
Az miles of Trier population, 49,
000, keystone of German defenses
before the Middle Rhine.
The Sd Army forced third cross
ing of the Saar River northwest of
Saarburg and started fighting in the
Siegfried Line which lies just east
of the Saar River. In the Pruem
sector, the columns squeezing the
German salient east of Luxembourg
moved to within miles of a juno
ton. Town after town fell
Canadian 1st Army gains on the
north flank of the Roer River front
were up to a mile and a half. The
fortified road bastion of Calcar
slowly was being invested. Scot
vanguards pushed half mile down
the Goch-Weeze road. Canadians
famed out to the north and moved
a mile and a half toward the sub
siding Rhine.
Allies Near Ruhr Rail Center.
At Linnich population 5000, the
Allies were 1872 miles from the
heart of Muenchen Gladbach, Ruhr
industrial and rail center. Linnich
and its sister fortress cities of
Dueren and Juelich on the Roer
were but piles of red brick as the
result of months of Allied artillery
and air bombardments.
At Dueren population 10000, the
American 9th Army was 20 miles
from Cologne. The Allies moved up
to its western edge last December.
Between Linnich and Dueren, the
Germans have built three earthen
defense lines. The whole Roer River
sector is beyond the Siegfried Line
which has been preached totally by
IS miles in the Aachen area.
The Germans said the Roer Of