The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-03-02
Trier And Venlo
 Taken By Allies
(Continued from Page D


 ican First Army storming through the last German defenses six miles west of the cathedral city.
 Tanks and armored troop carriers of Lieutenant General William H. Simpsons American Ninth Army cut the Nazi Rhineland front in two with their drive to the Rhine and famed out through the corridor west of the river to chop down struggling units of the retreating Nazi army.
 Fierce street fighting was raging between the American spearheads and German rear guards in Neuss, 1 1-2 miles west of the Rhine oppo- site Duesseldorf. Other columns were within l-2 miles of Krefeld, II miles to the north.
 Muenchen-G -Gladbach and its sub urbS of Rheydt, birthplace of Nazi propaganda Minister Paul Joseph Goebbels, fell to the Americans al- most without struggle and Berlin said the doughboys raced ahead Il miles to reach Krefgeld, mile west of the Rhine and II miles north west of Dusseldorf.
 Dispatches from Field Marshal Sir Bernard L. Montgomery's 2lst Army Group headquarters said the Ger man withdrawal began under cover of darkness late last night.
 EAF night flyers spotted five long columns of NaZi trucks and armor racing bumper to bumper over the roads leading to the Rhine in the Krefeld area, Il miles northeast of Muenchen-G -Gladbach.
 British bombers and fighters swarmed all over the retreating enemy columns throughout the night and raked the troop-packed Rhine bridges and ferries with bombs and cannon fire.
 Hundreds more Allied warplaneS joined the attack at daybreak, in spite of low-hanging clouds that gave the fleeing NaZis some cover. They ranged up and down the Rhine from Cologne northWard to Krefeld, at every moving target on the river.
 At mid-morning, more than 500 RAF heavy bombers and big fighter fleet smashed at Cologne, where a suicide band of Nazis was digging in for rear-guard fight against the American First Army storming in from the Erft river barely six miles to the west.
 The security blackout that cloak ed the progress of Lieutenant Gen. eral William H. Simpsons U. s. Ninth Army for more than 48 hours was lifted this morning to reveal that the Tanks had won a Spectacu- lar breakthrough rivalling the Nor mandy victory at St. Lo.
 All organized German resistance was falling apart under a swift succession of hammer blows that put Simpsons armor within one to 2 l-2 miles of the Rhine and per- haps on the river along an 1l-mile front from Neuss to Krefeld.
 VenlO Captured
 On their opposite flank, the Amer jeans stabbed F miles northeast of Muenchen-Gladbach to capture the stubborn German anchor at Venlo, only IT miles from vanguards of the Canadian First Army storming down through the Rhine-Mass corridor south of Uedem
 At the center, Simpsons men | drove four miles north of Muenchen | to cut the Krefeld-Venlo railway | and capture Viersen and Dulken.
 The Ninth Army triumphed. threatening to break all organized | German resistance west of the Rhine | before the end of the week, over shadowed other important but less | dramatic gains on the American | First and Third Army fronts to the south and the hard, bloody fight on | the Canadian First Army line to | the north.
 It. Gen. Courtney H. Hodges | First Army troops were locked in a savage, close-in fight against strong | German covering forces drawn up | in a six-mile wide belt of field fort | ifications extending from six to 10 miles west of Cologne.
 Field dispatches indicated that Hodges men still had not launched their all-out assault on Cologne, but were working slowly through the Nazi defenses with infantry and light tank formations. pending the build-up Of armored endorsements through their three Erft river bridgeheads.
 The Americans held all kut the eastern corner of Moedrath. their closest penetration to Cologne, and captured the Erft river towns of Horrem, Suadrath. Ichendorf and Bergheim. two to six miles to the northwest.
 German troops still held high | ground overlooking the river, how ever. and were pouring a c0ntinu- olis barrage of artillery and mortar Ire down on the American bridge heads in the Moedrath. Horrem and | Bergheim sectors.
 Yank infantrymen out in front | Of the assault ran into ierociOus resistance from German troops dug | in among the deep rock qlinrrIes | scattered throughout the area.
 Other First Army forces to the | southwest were flaming out south | and southeast of Dueren toward the | Rhine City of Bonn, l3 miles south | of Cologne. The Americans reach l ed Erp, five miles west of the Erft River and i6 miles northwest of | n~..... anA amV.ksannel DfnnaaaMfs.a