The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-04-23

NE w OIt1A, 1PlA II ~
than 10 miles now separate the
U. S. First Army and Russian
troops, BIC said tonight in 4
broadcast heard by NBC. Quot
ing its own correspondents.
BIC said American gunners
had been ordered not to fire
ahead of their own troops.
PARIS, Monday, April 23.-F-
The thunder of U. S. and RUSS ~
guns IS to 20 miles apart blended
into a single victorious roar on
the Berlin front Sunday as south.
bound Allied armies hurdled the
Danube and reached Lake Con-
stance, 81 miles from Hitler's last
stand area in the Alps.
Besides reaching the big lake
that forms the western bulwa-k of
Hitler's redoubt, the French seiz-
ed Stuttgart-most important in
dustrial city of south Germany,
with a population of 459. 0O0-and
sealed off thousands of Germans
in the Black Forest by ramming
to the Swiss frontier.
Tanks of the u. S. Seventh Army
in a 30-mile dash seized a bridge
and sped across the Danube less
than 10 miles from superhigh-
way leading so miles east to Mu-
Mich, birthplace of Hitler's Nazi
movement.
The U. S. Third Army on the
east drove II miles on southeast
in it's development of Czechoslo-
vakia within about 1875 miles of the
Russians fighting up through Aus.
tria.
While these trip-hammer blows
fell in the south, the world awaited
the electrifying news that the AL
lies of the East and West had met
in the heart of Germany.
A field dispatch from the U. S.
First Army front, where patrols
pushing across the Nude river
east of Leipzig ran into resistance,
said the Russians in that area
were Is miles from the American
lines.
On the U. S. Ninth Army front
before Berlin, the Americans could
hear Red Army commanders is
suing instructions via field radios.
An American pilot back from
reconnaissance in an artillery
spotter Is miles east of the First
Army lines said he saw German
villages ablaze from Red Army
artillery and Russian columns
were spotted.
Correspondents on the Ninth
Army front were hurriedly as
sembled and told that news of the
junction would come in the form
of United Nations" announce
ment, probably simultaneously
from Washington, London and
Moscow-one more indication that
the historic hour was near.
For the first time it was dis
closed that Allied air forces had a
definite bomb line stretching an un-
disclosed distance in front of the
Russian armies to prevent any
chance of accidental bombing.
Adolf Hitler himself indirectly
admitted that his armies of tn.
west now stood beaten and incap-
able of more than guerilla war;
fare.
An order bearing his signature,
captured by the British Second
Army, told his troops to practice
the guerrilla tactics taught to us
by the Russians"
Hitler's great redoubt in the Alps
OF Bavaria and Austria was in the
direst peril as three Allied armies
pounded on south.
French First Army troops in 4
15-mile dash reached Stockach and
Ludwig shafen, or the shores of
Lake Constance IL miles northwest
OF the famous resort of Constance.
where the families Of many high
Nazis were reported holed up from
the gathering Allied storm,
(Radio Atlantik said the Ger.
mans had declared Constance an
open city-the first time this had
been done anywhere in the war
torn Reich.)
There the French were 81 miles
from the frontier of Austria at The
western end of Hitler's redoubt.
The French reached the Swiss
frontier 20 miles west of Lake Con.
stance, turning the Black Forest
where once the enemy hoped to
Continued on Page Two; Col y