Evening star., 1945-03-16
MAP on Page A-3.)
BY the Associated Press.

tMUP ok uSC A~oc
By the Associated Press.
PARIS, Mar. 16-The new Of
fensive of 1t. Gen. Alexander M.
Patch'S American 7th Army
rolled forward today along a
50-mile front from Saarbruecken
to the Rhine, and aerial reports
indicated the Germans already
had started their flight to Frank
furt-on-the-Main from the Saar-
land and the Bavarian Pala-
tinate.
With this added peril facing the
Germans, 1t. Gen. Courtney H.
Hodges 1st Army troops to the
north continued their advance in
the Remagen bridgehead and pos
sibly already were astride the
Frankfurt-Ruhr superhighway The
Allied communique-which in re-
cent days has been hours behind
front-line dispatches - said the
Yanks were within 200 yards of the
superhighWay.
The Yanks advanced up to 2 miles
overnight into Koenigswinter, leng-
thening their east Rhine bridgehead
to 13 miles.
The superhighWay can be con-
sidered cut, with infantry at such
close range, Correspondent Don
Whitehead reported from the area
The Germans were unable to use
the section east of the Remagen
hridgehead, which bulged 61a miles
east of the Rhine to positions where
directly observed small arms fire
swept the highway.
Nazis Facing Trap.
= 1t. Gen. George S. Patton's Sd
Army, applying nutcracker squeeze
from the north on the Saarland and
Palatinate, broke out of its Moselle
River bridgeheads just southwest of
besieged and cut off Coblenz and
raced IL miles to the southeast in a
supreme effort to trap Germans
tarrying in outlanked sections of
the Siegfried Line
1t was the famous 4th Armored
Division which made the long dash
through and beyond the Moselle
bridgeheads established by the 5th
and Goth Divisions. The Moselle was
crossed anew miles southwest of
Coblenz and at a point 18 miles
south of Mayen.
Overnight advances by the 7th
Army ranged up to 212 miles for an
aggregate gain of up to miles in
the push. Numerous towns and
more than 1000 prisopers-mostly
panzer grenadiers and Elite SIS
troops-were captured.
Several Towns Taken.
Seventh Army troops fought at
the very edge of Saarbruecken and
occupied Fechingen, 6 miles inside
the Saarland, and Ensheim, south
of st. Ingbert (21,00O. Others oc-
cupied Obergailbach and advanced
a mile into the German Baumbusch
woods to point 8 miles south of
the steel mill city of Zweibruecken
(f6,000 in the Palatinate
The siege of the 200-year- -old
fortress of Bitche, never success
fully stormed, was tightened with
the capture of Freudenberg and
Reyerswiller, both within sight of
the great rock in the center of the
town. Bitschoffen, miles north
west of Haguenau, fell and the Ger
man communique announced the
.oss of North Haguenau itself.
The Saarland and Palatinate both
we're being pried loose from the
,eich-and these were the last i'm
ortant enemy holdings west of the
,hine.
The Sd Army also was swinging
own from the Middle Moselle be-
ind Merzig and Notifications on
le Saar River.
Fan Out Beyond Rhine.
The Germans repeated assertions
hat the great military speedway
asst of the Remagen bridgehead had
cen severed; they expressed as
reat concern over the new and
owerful 7th Army offensive.
All through the night, the 1st
rmy infantrymen battered their
ay through the rugged forests and
ills of inner Germany in a fanout
lst of the Rhine beyond Remagen
The German radio, which previ-
1usly estimated that 100000 Amer
can troops have been poured into
The Remagen bridgehead, declared
four more divisions were being
moved into the area, making it ''the
biggest single concentration OF
power on narrow front ever seer
in this war,
Even during the invasion in Nor.
mandy there was nothing to COM
pare with it," declared German Wal
Reporter Franz Westhoff. "The sit.
uation is like a boiler under maxi
mum pressure and ready to ex.
plode from pent-up energy"
The broadcast also asserted that
1t. Gen. Leonard Gerow, commander
of the new United States 18th Army
now was at the head of the force.
on the east bank of the Rhine.
Fight in Village of Hoevel.
Inland, Gen. Hodges men fought
in the village of Hoevel. almost
astride the wide concrete road which,
Sir additional men from
the District area hape been
reported killed In this aar. See
"O,1 fbe Ho1,nr PoJ11 De-. .