The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1945-04-26

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hearted enemy opposition.
Almost SO miles to the southeast,
Patton's 18th Armored Division
drove almost unopposed over the
last 10 miles before the Austrian
border AID the Bavarian stronghold
Of Passau, where the Danube, liz
and Inn rivers meet.
Patton's men were little more than
100 miles from a juncture with Red
Army troops advancing on Berchtes-
gaden from positions about ITO miles
east of the mountain hideout.
Hitler's elaborate chatel at Berch-
tesgarden was in ruins after shat
teriog Raj attack yesterday that
also was believed to have damaged
the Fuehrer's towering Kahlstein
fortress nearby.
The Raj raid was coordinated
with devastating American air
strike that destroyed IT'S German
planes and damaged another 129
in and around the Bavarian citadel.
18th Across Danube
German resistance was breaking
wide open on the last lap of the
bloody road to Berchtesgaden and
farther west where the U. S. Sew
enth and French First Armies were
across the Danube in force, pound
ing in to join the battle were
across the Danube in force, pound
ing in to join the battle for Mu-
Mich and the redoubt.
Even greater chaos shook the
German lines to the north. There
Hitler:s western front had all but
vanished under the converging
blows of the American and Rus
sian armies.
Field dispatches said the western
and eastern Allies had not yet eff
fected a juncture by nightfall
Wednesday but that the linkup was
expected hourly.
Russian troops crossed the Elbe
at a point only 20 miles from the
U. S. First Army lines south of
Berlin and were even closer in the
area west of the doomed capital.
American Ninth Army, patrols
sent out to meet the oncoming So
VETS in the latter area yesterday
were forced to turn back because
of the flood of German soldiers
and civilians rushing westward to
surrender to the Yanks.
In a scene reminiscent of the
German collapse in 1918, fully
armed Nazi soldiers were Surrend-
ering in groups of a thousand and
more wherever they could find an
American to lead them through the
lines.
So great was the congestion
that the Americans were refusing
passage to all German civilians
and permitting only enemy troops
to enter the prison cages.
Only on the British Second Army
front to the northwest were the
Germans offering any coherent de-
tense. There die-hard NaI gar
rison was still holding out in the
streets of burning Bremen while
other units fell back slowly
through the southern suburbs OF
Hamburg, Germany's second city
and greatest seaport.
The British linked up their front
with the American Ninth Army on
the west bank of the Elbe opposite
Wittemberge, 81 miles northwest OF
Berlin. Unconfirmed reports SAID
elements of the two armies were
striking across the river toward the
Baltic port of Lubbock, 70 miles to
the north.
Meanwhile, the three-army Am
erican and French drive on NAIL
doms last refuge in the Bavarlan
Alps was beginning to roll at top
speed.
100 Miles In 4 Days
Patton's rampaging Third Army
in four days had covered 100 miles
southwark from its jump-off polnt
at the northwestern corner OF Gee
choslovakia and was rolling up TO
and across the Danube along a
front of more than 100 miles east
and west of Regensburg.
The crack 18th Armored DIVISION,
leading the march on Berchtesga-
den, cleared the highway center OF
Regen early yesterday and raced
ahead another 20-odd miles along
the edge of the Bohemian Plateau
to the Tittlingen area.
There the Americans were only IL
miles from Passau and the Austrian
border, II miles north of Berchtes-
gaden and SO miles northeast OF
Braunau, birthplace of Hitler.
Field dispatches said the advance
was continuing at a pace rivalling
that Of peacetime mal.euvers, indi-
eating the Americans might already
have reached the Danube and cross
ed over into Austrian soil.
Crack Maxi Elite Guards, ordered
| to stand and die on the outer