The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-04-19
Other Units
Enter Heart.
Of Leipzig
Fifth Largest Reich City
Expected To Fall
In Few Hours

PARlS, 1nuTSQdy, ApIll lo0hI
-Infantrymen and tanks of the
U, S. Third Army slashed across
the border of Czechoslovakia yes
terday, cutting Germany in two
geographically, while other Ameri-
can forces conquered Magdeburg,
60 miles southwest of Berlin, and
drove almost to the heart of Leip-
zig, the Reich's fifth largest city.
The historic crossing into the
Sudetenland, which Hitler annexed
in 1885, was made north of Asch
by Doughboys of the goth Infantry
Division riding in jeeps and on
the backs of tanks. Last night they
were reported two miles inside
Czechoslovakia in the vicinity of
Gott-Mannszgrun, 10 miles east
of the German city of Hof.
The last eight miles Of the
plunge to the border was made
without neutrality-suspicious. of
the present low state of NaZi arms
but a front dispatch said brisk
fire was encountered after 1t. Gen.
George S Patton's men and armor
had crossed the border of Hitler's
stolen nation, three other Ameri-
can armies fought to clear the i'm
portant cities of Leipzig, Nuern-
berg and Dusseldorf, and British
armor closed within 10 miles of the
great North Sea port of Hamburg
at the apex of an advance along
a 40-mile front.
Front dispatches last night said
the historic city of Leipzig, site
of Germany's renowned fairs,
might fall within hours to 1t. Gen
Courtney H. Hodges First Army.
On the sixth day of the siege of
this city of more than 100000
population Doughboys had driven
to the Elsterbecken canal and the
Piesse river, deep within Leipzig.
Magdeburg, the ruined industrial
metropolis on the west bank of the
Elbo river, was cleared by 1t.
Gen. William H. Simpsons Ninth
Army after two days of bitter fight
ing in which flame-throwing
tanks were used to burn out the
last tanatical Hitler youth snip
ers
Troops of 1t. Gen. Courtney H.
Hodges First Army drove to with,
In 1000 yards of the center OF
Leipzig after five days of bitter
lighting against determined gar.
rlson, and others of Hodges forces
closely besieged the cities of Halle
and Dessau, southwest of Berlin.
Halle was cleared except for its
southern outskirts.
The Nazi shrine city of Nuern.
berg had been penetrated at four
different points by 1t. Gen. Alex.
ander Patch's Seventh Army, but
enemy resistance still was fierce
IN that bastion at the approaches
10 Hltler's holdout fortress in the
Bavarian Alps. Ninety-six guns
defending the city had been de
stToyed, damaged or captured il
me past "a hours.
julius Streicher, the Nazis' mas
Ter Jew-baiter and bully who hae
directed the defense of Nuremberg
was reported to have fled the city
1our nights ago. Women were re
ported manning guns inside Nuern
berg, as they we're in Leipzig
among prisoners taken from the
Nuremberg garrison was a soldier
win one arm. Two others had leg
missing.
Canadian forces topped off thei,
steady successes in Holland b.
reaching the Zuider Zee in thu
northern Netherlands. They wer
less than two miles from the grea
inland sea on the south and wer'
moving steadily toward Rotter
Jam, Amsterdam and Utrecht. TIL
Nazls now hold only a fragment 0
me whole coastline of northern
holland, at point west across a,
estuary from Emden.
dusseldorf, last big city held b
me Nazis in the devastated Rub
pocket, was falling to the lit
american Ai-borne Division. Onl
10 square miles of the trap r,
famed to be wiped out, and tn
u,sss!er 70 the German army the1
s sttolhlsed to eclipse even that {
'''ilngrad on the Russian front.
NenanHed on Pare Three. ca1 9