The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-02-27
Mobile Forces On
 Ruhr Valley Rim
Continued from Page D

scores of Germans continued to enter, unaware until they were cap- tured that 1t was held by the Amer jeans.
 Partially overshadoWing the spc- tacular breakthrough before Col ogne was the march of the Ninth Army's northern wing to the rim of the Ruhr valley.
 Americn troops and armor cleared the big road hub of Erkelenz after only brief street fight yes- terday and plunged almost six miles north along the main road to Muenchen-G -Gladbach.
 Early today they were battling through Rheindahhen, i've miles southwest Of the factory city.
 Other Ninth Army columns pushed five miles northwest of Erkelenz to take Wegbury and then advanced another two miles north to the outskirts of Rickelrath, 5 1-2 miles west of Muechnen-Glad
 Venrath Captured
 Venrath and Mennrath, just east of the ErkelenZ-Muenchen road al- so were taken, and at the latter town the Tanks were only 1-2 miles be- low the Duhr city of Rheydt and IS miles southwest of Dusseldorf on the Rhine.
 Farther to the southeast, the U. s 30th "Old Hickory" division drove four columns east from the Juelich area toward Cologne at pace only slightly slower than the northern spearheads.
 One wing captured Kirchherten, Grotterherten and Putz, cluster of towns IA to 16 miles northwest of Cologne and two to three miles west of the Erft. Oberempt, three miles to the south and 1-2 miles short of the ErG, was taken by another task force.
 A third armored column drove down the Juelich-Cologne highway and broke into Esch, Angelsdorf and Elsdorf, three to 1-2 miles from the Erft and about 13 miles uue west Ol COlORnc.
 Still another 30th Division team broke west-southWest of Cologne.
 Between the 30th Divisions northern flank at Kirchertern and the Ninth Army forces closing on the Ruhr, the 29th Division was hammering out big gains on the Juelich-Duesseldorf road. There the Tanks took Titz and Opherten, the latter Is 1-2 miles southwest of industrial Dusseldorf.
 Still another Allied host was crowding down on the Ruhr from the northwest. There Gen. H. D. Crerars Canadian First Army cracked open the last belt O. Sieg- fried line Notifications astride the Rhine-Maas corridor and broke through below Uedem, p miles from the Ruhr.
 Well over 5000 dazed had thor oughly-bea Germans threw down their arms and surrendered to the Tanks and their Canadian First Army Allies in the north in the past "A hours 5000 of them on the U. s. First and Ninth Army fronts wehre the roll of captives was swell ing hourly.
 New Flanking Threat
 Far to the south, It. Gen. George s. Patton's rampaging Third Army poised new flanking threat to tht Nazis' hard-pressed Rhineland de. lenses. The Americans on that sec tor broke across the Nims river lint and stabbed forward almost six mileI to the Kyll river, last big barrier short of the Moselle valley leading i to the Rhine. Patton's men farthe, south reached the Moselle valley 5 1-2 miles below Trier and abou 60 miles from Coblenz.
 But the decisive breakthrough ap' peared to have been made on th' U. s. First and Ninth Army line be fore Cologne, where the Tanks wert pouting in a flood of guns ant armor in a supreme bid to pin thu bulk of Germany's western division against the bridgeless Rhine ant Destroy them there.
 The two armies hammered ou gains of as much as five miles yes terday all along their combined front, now broadened to more thar 35 miles by flanking thrusts to thu north and south.
 At the pivotal center of the line doughboys and supporting armor o the First Army's l04th Timberwol Division lunged straight down thu super-highway linking Dueren ant Cologne to capture Blatzheim, | miles west of Cologne. Late dis patches said they pushed on an other three miles or more overnigh to the Kerpen area where they wer' only a mile from the Erft.
 Another 104th Division battle tean was showing rapidly eastward alonI a secondary road to the south, wher they last were reported well beyont captured Eschweiler, Is 1-2 mile southwest of Cologne.
 Fast-moving tank and tank destroyer groups were riding out il | Frank aP kha An,,0hkOva Anrirrlin,