Evening star., 1945-02-25
80 Towns Taken
In Plunge 5 Miles
Beyond Roer
MAP on Page A-5.)

1915 SORTIES FLOWN in support
of west front offensive. Page AS
BY the Associated Press.
PARIS, Sunday, Feb. 25.-The
American 1st and 9th Armies
plunged nearly miles across the
Cologne Plain beyond the shat
tered Roer River defense line
yesterday. engulfing 80 towns
and villages and capturing thou
sands of the German force or
the west bank of the Rhine.
At dusk on the second day of the
powerful push-by German account
the greatest offensive Eisenhower
has ever staged" spear.
heads were II miles from the West.
ern Ruhr Basin and 10 from Co.
logne, and had won half of the
Roer River bastion of Dueren.
Nearest announced approaches to
Cologne were at Oberzier and Me
derzier, villages between Juelich and
Dueren and each 10 miles from Co.
logne's outskirts.
Won Runstedt Rushes Reserves.
The thunderous battle famed
along a 22-mile front. Massed ar
tillery was smashing German viii
lagos in the path of the surgine
ground forces, and battle planes
bombed and machinegunned COL
umns Of Germans trying to reach
the front. Rail traffic was par
alyzed.
A late report said Marshal Won
Rundstedt was rushing German re-
serves from the south into the bat
tie on the approaches to Duessel-
dorf and Cologne. Other than this
report there still was no sign that
the enemy was ready to make a
new stand.
1t. Gen. william H. Simpson s
9Th Army on the north flank of the
offensive gained momentum after
smashing through Baal. IL miles
southwest Of Muenchen Gladbach,
an Industrial city of 100000 at the
western fringe of the Rulnr.
High ground was seized beyond
Baal and Gen. Simpsons troops
were astride the railway to Muen-
chen Gladbach. They were Is miles
from the big Ruhr center of Dussel-
dorf.
Hundreds of Prisoners Taken.
Three miles to the southeast
troops of the 102d Division cap
tured Hottorf, miles north OF
American-held Juelich. and also
completely cleared the enemy from
Gevenich, Glimbach, Tetz, BoslaI
and other villages in the area
Troops of this spearhead also were
about Is miles from Dusseldorf.
The capture of Hottorf and the
plunge beyond put the Americans
8 miles from the Erft River, where
a new German stand may be made
10 miles from the Rhine.
The 1920 Division alone took
more than 300 prisoners since they
jumped of east of Linnich, and
both the 9Th and 1t. Gen. Courtney
H. Hodges 1st Army had taken at
least 1,400 in the first "a hours OF
the offensive. Hundreds more were
streaming back into the prison
pens yesterday.
Both armies had swarmed up on
high ground dominating the Co.
logne Plain, and front reports said
the offensive was ahead of sched-
ule.
Half Of Dueren Cleared.
In the center, American forces
captured Niederzier, 19 miles west
of Cologne, and nearby Hanback,
A German column trying to flee
from Hanback, Forest was wiped
out by artillery fire. The enemy in
the past has used wooded areas
for stands costly sto the Allies.
The 1st Army cleared half Of
bomb-shattered Dueren and cap.
tured the towns of Birkesdorf anc
Niederau, which flank it on thu
north and south, and the oath Di-
vision fought on into Arnoldsweiler
2 miles northeast of Dueren. The
104th and the 9th Division, operat.
ing on its southern flank, presunl.
ably both have troops inside Dueren
Four towns on the west Eank Of
the Roer, beyond the northernmos1
sector of the bridgehead northwes1
of Linnich, we're taken By Ameri.
can troops who closed up to ths
river on 6-mile stretch of the wes
bank, which had not been cleared
previously. They were Porselen
Oberstruck, Kempen and Scharlz
Engineers, at the cost of tn,
highest casualties since D-day
finally erected bridges across th'