Evening star., 1945-03-11
Resistance Of Germans Stiffens:
Wese| Pocket in North Co||apses
Nozis Reported
Also Giving Up
Dutch Areas
By the Associated Press.

SUPREME ALLIED HEAD
QUARTERS, Paris, Sunday, Mar
II. - American troops gained
almost a mile in the Remagen
bridgehead east of the Rhine
yesterday while collapse of the
German west bank bridgehead
opposite Wesel and the mopup
of trapped pockets in the Eifel
region dealt new blows to the
apparently fast-ebbing German
defense.
The Yanks across the Rhine at
Remagen made their advances
deepening and lengthening their
already werful bridgehead-
against the desperate opposition of
enemy armor and infantry rushed
there in a frantic effort to prevent
the 1st Army forces from rolling
up the entire German Rhine line
from the rear.
On the basis of Associated Press
front dispatches from Remagen
early today, the Americans are
punching inland and along the
river. The Germans, beset by bat
tered communications and lowered
morale, have not yet brought suf-
ficient strength into the bridgehead
area to halt the attackers.
Last Escape Rout Cut Off.
A dispatch from the United
States 9th Army front said a spear
head regiment of the 35th infan-
try division had cut off the last
remaining route of escape for the
few Germans remaining in the
Wesel pocket late last night. The
Yanks reached the approaches of a
railroad bridge which repeatedly
was blown out.
From the Netherlands front came
reports by reconnaissance pilots of
extensive eastward movements of
German troops north of the Waal
Rhine. This may indicate that in
the face of heavy reverses and pos
sible naval attacks on the Dutch
coast, the Germans have decided to
abandon all of Holland south of the
zuider Zee in order to fall back on
the Ijssel River and a better defen-
sive position.
Such withdrawal would mean
abandonment by the enemy of Hol-
lands main cities of Amsterdam,
Rotterdam, the Hague and Utrecht.
Yanks Strike Out for Hills.
The Americans were striking out
for the commanding hills about 6
miles east of the Remagen crossing
as both sides massed men and tanks
for the crucial battle at Germany's
inner Threshold. Only miles east
of the river (and apparently a mile
or less from the Americans advance
runs one of Adolf Hitler's new super
highways to Cologne, an ideal avenue
for northWard charge toward the
Ruhr industrial basin.
The Germans said American
shock troops were storming across
the Rhine in assault boats in a
bid to broaden the bridgehead.
Supreme Allied Headquarters did
not confirm this, but a field dis
patch said enemy resistance was
stiffening and at least one armored
division was deployed against the
American advance.
The Germans had not yet tried
to seize the initiative, more than
three days after the Americans first
crossed, and had not yet made a
major counterattack, Associated
Press Correspondent Hal Boyle
wrote from east of the Rhine.
Nazis Build Up Artillery.
This was the Ardennes in reverse,
with Field Marshal Karl Won Rund-
stedt forced to make heavy commit
ment of reserves against this threat
to the heart of the Reich at an hour
when four other Allied armies were
lined up on the Rhine in position to
cross
Still on the defensive, the Ger
mans were building up artillery in
a desperate effort to knock out the
Lundendorf bridge at Remagen be-
fore the advancing American infan-
try and tanks drive their guns be-
yond reach of the crossing.
Alert United States 9th Air Force
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