The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-04-10

Berlins main outer fortress. Lat last night the Tanks were reported
 dozen miles beyond Hannovel and less than 20 miles from Bruns' wick-a key communications cente
 104 miles due west of the German capital.
 Hundreds of Allied fighter-bomI CTS swarmed out to join the battlt at first light today, raking the re
 treating enemy all across thu northern plains and southward il
 the path of the American First Third and Seventh Armies.
 First reports of clear flyinl
 weather indicated the Allied six,
 fleets might duplicate yesterday devastating series of strikes on tht
 Germans airfields and communi cations centers on the roads tt Berlin.
 Flying upwards of 5000 sortie! yesterday, the American and Brit. ish raiders destroyed 189 German planes, 168 of them caught aground and sowed death and destruction through the enemy's forward battle areas from Hamburg to Munich.
 The bliStering air attack sent tht
 American First and Third armie'
 off again on their joint drive! across Central Germany, with the first hooking up for Magdeburl and Berlin and the Third east anc southeast for Leipzig and the Cze' choSlovak border.
 Field dispatches, tagging mort
 than 12 hours behind the battle said It. Gen. Courtney H. Hodges
 First Army troops were across tht
 Leine River in force and advanc.
 ing east and northeast along a 4O' mile front from Einbeck in thu !. north to Heiligenstadt in the south They carved out gains of as mucf
 as 18 miles in "A hours.
 Vanguards of the First Army b. last night were barely 70 mile from Magdeburg, with one column at Duderstadt, 133 miles southwes of Berlin, a second at Northeim, I
 miles to the northwest. and thirt at Einbeck, 10 miles farther to thu ; northwest.
 German resistance was reported
 breaking wide open in the path O.
 the charging First Army. litter.
 Berlin spokesmen said the Tank were driving northeastward iron Eineck to the rim of the liar;
 Mountains, barely 120 miles iron Berlin.
 There was no further word of ;
 German n-reported American para
 troop attack on the First Army
 southern flank. Berlin said th' , paratroops were fighting in bat
 sooden, 10 miles southwest of Hei
 ligenstadt, and trying to link Ill
 with the American Third Army il that sector.
 Security Blackout
 Most of It. Gen. George s. Pat tons Third Army tank division were cloaked by a security black out early today and there was n,
 immediate indication whether the. had resumed their advance east ward or were still building up sup plies and endorsements. Front dispatches said Patton infantry formations advanced a much as nine miles today along { front extending south from tn
 Frankfurt -Dresden-Leipzig supe r highway for more than 20 miles The gains for the most part, how
 ever, were line-straightening opera tions aimed at wiping out smal enemy bulges in Patton'S front.
 The doughboys entered Plaue. l miles southeast of Gotha, an, reached the Roda area five mile farther east. Other columns to tn , south reached the Manebach are eight miles northeast of Suhu an entered Waldou, nine miles south
 east of Suhl. Patton's troops wer l 58 miles from tn northwestern corner of Czechoslovakia. , German resistance was rough a some points along the attack front
 but upwards of 5000 Nazis wer 1 captured there yesterday and tn . advance was reported continuin steadily.
 Patton'S southern flank rested ol
 Roth, II miles southwest of Waldal and only nine miles north of Am
 erican Seventh Army troops wf'
 raced g miles beyond the ball bearing center of Schweinfurt t Rieth.
 Schweinfurt itself was closely in vested by Seventh Army force moving in from positions less thai four miles north and south of tn
 city and its fall appeared imminent Far to the southwest, other Sev enth Army units were locked in l savage battle to hold their 25-mile long salient jutting down to within
 94 miles northwest of Munich. Swarms of German planes an l. the crack Nazi 17th SS Panze ! division were reported smashin continually at the nose of the Am
 erican salient at Crailsheim, bu
 late dispatches said the Tanks wer holding fast. Almost 70 miles to the west, tn Seventh Army ran into anothe
 tough battle for Heilbrown on tn
 Neckar river. Fierce street fightin ragged inside the city this mornin for the Seventh straight day. French First Army forces farthe
 south drove within nine mile northwest of Stuttgart at Obe Riexingen.
 At the northern end of the Allie battle line. Canadian First Arm . forces continued their slogging ad vance across the flooded Dutcl iiowiands to tighten their nooa
 around the remnants of the Qermal 25th Army in western Holland. The Nazis. estimated at perhap