The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-02-12
Patton S Men
Storm Pruem;
Roer Flooded
First Army Reported
Fighting Atop Giant
German Dam

pARTs Feb, 1l.-(R-The Cana.
dian First Army drove the Ger
mans today from the western Sec
+ion Of Kleve and into the southern
haf Of the fortress on the Reich
ramparts in the fourth day of ar
offensive that has bored 10 miles
through the Siegfried Line.
Street fighting ragged in a second
pfllar of the enemy's defenses 115
miles south where two U. S.
Third Army divisions were storm
ing the Eifel mountain stronghold
Of Pruem and threatening to cut it
off from its road link to the Rhine.
The Luxembourg radio said that
once more German troops were
rushing westward to meet an ex-
pected about Allied smash, alter
ing the current of reinforcements
which for days has been rushing
eastward to meet the Russians.
This flow of endorsements was
reflected on the Canadian front,
where front dispatches said tough
German parachute troops hustled
up from Alsace were stiffening the
sagging lines. The count OF prison
ers in this battle rose to $500.
The Third Army's invasion Of
The Reich southwest of Pruena was
gathering momentum as the Dor.
derline Sure river was bridged ~
pontoons at one point, and men and
supplies poured across. Ten cross
ings now were welded into three
bridgeheads on 25-mile front.
For the moment. the British Sec
ond and U. S. First aid Ninth
Armies, massed between Pruem
and Kleve, were idle. The flooded
Roer river along their front had
risen to seven feet above normal
north of Aschen and was two miles
wide at one place, but reports to
Supreme Headquarters said the
river was believed to have reach
ed its peak.
The flood-loosed when the Ger
mans blew the flood gates Of the
giant SchWammenauel dam south
east Of Aachen-had risen no high
er upstream at Dueren and the
water in the five-mile long reser-
VOLT had dropped 20 feet in "a
hours.
A front dispatch said U. S. First
Army troops still were fighting
atop the big earthen dam. Contrary
10 reports that it had been captur-
ed they hold one end of the dam
and control the other by artillery
fire.
In northern Alsace, the U. S.
seventh Army beat off a counter.
attack IN which the Germans struck
with tanks northeast of Strasbourg,
out the Americans were forced to
make a retirement from Drusen-
helm.
In southern Alsace, where the
1efmanS were driven back into
uAe Reich, a strong enemy patrol
urea to return Saturday night
across the Rhine northeast of Col
fire
a dispatch from the Kleve battle
NOM declared that Field Marsha,
-ioi1lgomery's massed artillery
was ripping German towns apart
ol scale that dwarfed even the
Ngntlng in Normandy.
r. herman broadcasts. admitting
n wanaolan gains, insisted the dri~e
b "as out the prelude to Gen. Eisen-
west. oii 'he
Cd me Germans apparently count
t ~ On the flood to hold their north
c na,lh along the Rhine, while thcy
un,.5 on rock-like defense
p44 VI roads and railways.
oo nu! hey counted without the in
Sesrulsyl Of amphibious tank-riding
s v"|4o ,. who brought the as
b.1t INES TO within a mile and q
tra north 10 of Kleve with the cap
fore e Oh = Donsbrueggen. The flood
ate r pa dominion troops to evacu-
" I've IL nearby "a Rindern, captured ear
was at h The same time, the enemy
house I 'f FL : hurled back house-to-
at oIo IN Kleve in bloody combat
on tho hose quarters, losing L.
bac Ile western section and falling
ton. ''o 'ile soutnm 49, go
tor %1'n til the citadel outflanked by
and Ssh! slIaashing eastward both north
cul S south SO of the city, it was diff
mncb to J, see how Kleve could hold
mi1e elo'ner fierce battle flared two
cana n south of Kleve, where the
tween ' +hs cut communications be-
"0n''nusd On Page Two, Col. s.