The Wilmington morning star., 1945-04-01
Germans Fight Savagely
In Effort To Break Out
Toward Berlin
PLAN LAST STAND
New American 18th And
French First Armies
Join Struggle i
Bv EDWARD KENNEDY

L Ah1O, sunday, April 1 -
I(P - The Allies clamped a
steel deathlock around the
Ruhr basin last night but the
Germans fought savagely in
in an effort to break out
northeastward toward Berlin,
now only 10 miles away, and
there was no sign that they
were ready to accede to Gen.
Eisenhower's new demand for
surrender.
"This is the final great
battle of the west," wrote AS
ISOLATED Press Correspondent
Hal Boyle from Paderborn,
battle of humiliation conferred.
six-Way road hub in which the
The battered Nazi cohorts, fight
ling fercely, gave every indication
they intended to battle to the last.
There were indications that rem
nants of the German armies, form
ing as best they were able, were
massing along the river Weser for
a final stand and possibly a des-
perate, last-ditch counteroffensive,
inspired by Hitler.
Bloody Finish Possible
High Allied officers were conf
dent that such a suicidal offensive
would shatter against the ring of
Allied steel but admitted it might
result in a bloody finish to the war.
American combat officers gave
no evidence of the obvious jubila-
ton of Supreme Allied command
officers and freely predicted that
the Germans might try another Of
fensive before admitting defeat.
Very few officers who have been
battling the Germans expect the
war to be over before two or three
months.
Allied supreme headquarters
made no break in it's security
blackout but broadcast an invita-
ton by Gen. Eisenhower to all iso-
lated German forces to surrender.
He disclosed that the new U. S.
18th Army and the French First
Army both had joined the strug-
gle, raising to nine the number of
Allied armies battling east of the
Rhine.
Associated Press Correspondent
Don Whitehead said that the U. S.
Ninth and Third armored divisions
had made contact at Warburg. "a
miles southeast of Paderborn, to
close one side of the trap, while
Yves Gallagher wrote that the Sec
ond armored division of the U. S.
Ninth Army had thrust eastward
30 miles and established tactical
radio contact with the U. S. First
Army near Paderborn
Cutoff Complete
Exact nature of the contact was
not disclosed, but Gallagher said
that for all practical purposes the
cutoff was complete.
The huge pocket thus created en-
closed the remnants of three Ger
man armies, estimated to number
possibly 10000 men, but said by
Boyle on the scene to include
"scores of thousands"
The Ruhr industrial basin, with
out which Hitler's army leaders
have told him they can no longer
wage war, was isolated or in ruins.
AS if only now aware of their
plight, the Germans flung every.
thing they had into the flaming
battle of Paderborn, some 100
miles northeast of Cologne.
Repeatedly they attacked with
small infantry forces, led by tanks.
Dug-in infantry with bazookas
strove to hold off the ranpaging
Americans, but the front dispatches
said each effort cost the Germans
casualties, and Boyle wrote:
1.-THE German armies in the west
are committing suicide-suicide by
tortured inches"
On the left. the British Second
Army with American parachutist
aid, was racing under blackout
on what was described as the last
lap of its push to Muenster, while
other British Canadian forces
thrust into Holland.
The u. S. Third Army. having
made contact with the First at