The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1945-03-16
EUROPE:
Vital areas

With Allied armies poised against
both the vital Ruhr and Saar val
leys, the Germans fought with their
backs against the wall in desper-
ate effort to hold on to these indus
trial districts so important to their
ability to continue the war.
Already heavily battered by aerial
bombardment, the Ruhr and Saar
faced the prospect of destructive ar
tillery drum-fire, destined to lay
their smoke-blackened cities and
coal and iron-mining districts in
gaunt ruins.
Offering only sporadic resistance
to the rolling columns of U. S. and
British troops west of the Rhine, the
Germans beat steady retreat back
to the river, evidently intending to
put up a strong stand behind the
1900 to 3,270 foot wide waterway
rather than in the rolling plains be-
fore it, where superior Allied armor
could chew up their diminishing
strength.
During the Nazis' withdrawal,
fleets of Allied bombers reared over
rear areas, not only smashing at
road and rail lines in an effort to
hamper troop movements, but also
hitting at armored formations con-
centrated behind the Rhine for a
last ditch defense of the Ruhr. Full
extent of the magnitude of the Al
lied aerial bombardment can be
gathered from reports that British
based U. S. planes alone dropped
$1,000 tons on Germany in February.
While falling back to the Rhine
on the u. s. 9th and LIST and the
British 2nd army fronts i'm the
north, the Germans utilized the
rugged Eifel and Innsbruck
mountain country at the north
ern rim Of the Saar in an effort
to slow up the U. S. 3rd army's
smash to the south. In every
way, the Germans, familiar
from A to z with the country,
were making every attempt to
use the terrain to meet the Al
lied threat with minimum Of
manpower.
Slightly larger than the state Of
Delaware, the besieged Ruhr era
died rs per cent of the enemy's war
industry in 1912, with its great coal
deposits, estimated at 90 per cent
of Germany's reserves and half Of
continental Europe's, forming the
basis for its manufactures. Besides
ornaments, the Ruhr's s, COO, eco peo-
pie produced steel, chemicals, pig
iron, textiles, synthetic oil, high &C
tame gas, rayon, drugs, plastics,
dyes, bricks, glass and pottery.
Smaller than Rhode Island, the
Saar also relied upon massive coal
beds and iren deposits for the basis
of its thriving industry, which pro-
duced steel, machinery, cement,
plate glass, shoes, paper and textiles
besides war goods.
Pocketed before by the Ger
mans during the latter's great
sweeps through Russia earlier
in the war, willy Red generals
were taking no chances ON being
nipped of all over again On tine
eastern front.
Although their forces had reached
the Oder and Neisse rivers due east
of Berlin On broad front, the Red
generals sought to minimize the pos
sibilities Of German attack on their
TANKS far to the rear Of the forward
positions.
Holding up their fire on the central
front until securing their TANKS, the
Reds exerted strong pressure against
the Germans strung out along the
Baltic coast Immediately above the
right wing of Zhukov's LIST White Rus
sian army. To the south on the left
wing of Konev's LIST Ukrainian army,
the Reds guarded against the danger
of Nazi thrust from Upper Silesia,
where the latter had set up strong
lines to defend the industrial district
and approaches to Czechoslovakia's
Axis-worked war plants.