The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-03-15
Breakthrough Bid
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 Koenigswinter, three miles north of Honnef, extending the Tank salient to almost IS milues.
 At the center of the bridgehead. the Americans thrust five miles east of Remagen to clear all but 6 handful of Germans from the vil- lagc of Notscheid. Kalenborn, two miles to the north, and St. Kath- arinen and Hargarten, just south of Notscheid, also were in American hands or all but captured.
 North of Kalenborn and east of Hargarten the Americans were bare- iy mile from the broad concrete military highway forming the back bone of the German Rhine de- lenses.
 Fresh Reserves Active
 Field dispatches said German re- sistance was stiffening by the hour us fresh reserves joined the battle. Elements of at least two new Pan- ger brigades were identifeid in &C., ton in addition to the 1lth Panzer Division and infantry forces preVt- ously engaged there.
 German shellfire on the Remagen railway span and the nearby pom toon bridge slackened perceptibly, however, as the American advance forced the Nazis to withdraw their field guns behind the superhigh- way.
 Enemy aerial activity also dwindled following yesterdays smashing American air strike on the Lippe airfield east of Remagen, where 58 Nazi warplanes were de- stroyed aground and 48 damaged. It was the LuftWaffes heaviest loss at any airfield since the war began and was expected to cut down the en- emys incessant bombing and straf- ing raids on the Rhine bridges.
 Both bridges were announced of- ficially as still standing last night, despite German boasts that the Lu- dendorf railway span had been de- stroyed. U. $. First Army spokes- men said the bridge was in better shape than 1t was when 1t was cap- tured last Wednesday.
 Eleven German planes struck in- effectively at the bridges and the surrounding area last night, but four and probably five were shot down.
 A new threat to the German Rhine defenses was building up swiftly on the First Army's south- ern flank, where Pattons veterans edged along the west bank of the Rhine to Lutzel, only 1000 yards north of Coblenz. They drew heavy mortar and rifle fire from Nazi gunners entrenched in the outskirts of the city.
 Coblenz itself was being outflank- cd by other Third Army forces to the south who crossed the Mosel on nine-mile front and pushed as much as three miles to the east and south, capturing II towns and driv- ing weak German rear guards in headlong retreat to the Rhine.
 The advance was spearheaded by troops of the Fifth Infantry Divi- sion who broke into the narrow triangle south of the Rhine -Mosel confluence to take Udenhausen, eight miles southwest of. Coblen2 and three miles west of the Rhine crossing town of Boppard.
 The southern wing of Patton's new offensive front extended to point south of the Mosel river town of Treis, l7 l-2 miles southwest of Coblenz.
 Still farther south, Patton's 94th Infantry Division was making steady progress across the north western corner of the Saar in what appeared to be pincers attack CO., ordinated with the northward thrust of the Seventh Army.
 Units of the 94th hammered out gains of about a half-mile yester- day on a nine-mlle front taking number of towns in the sector seven to nine miles east Of Saarburg and about the same distance southeast of Trier. Field dispatches described the front as fluid and reported that most of then enemy opposition consisted of Mortar fire and land mines.
 Thirty miles to the southeast, the U. s. Seventh Army's 10th Division swung forward to the Saar river with q rush that sent the Germans tumbling back across the stream into their fixed Siegfried line de- lenses west of Saarpruecken.
 The Americans gained as much as three miles on an eight mile front, clearing light German covering forces from Petit Roselt, Krueg- hutte, Stieringen- Wendell, Fuersten- hausen, Wehrden. Schaffhausen, Gieslautern, Clarenthal, and Scho- enecken, all lying in an arc 2 l-2 miles southwest to seven miles west of Saarbruecken.
 Other Seventh Army troops who crossed the Saar in the Sarregue- mines area three weeks ago were strongly entrenched in positions around Buebingen, four miles south east of Saarbruecken.
 
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