The Wilmington morning star., 1945-04-15
First, Third
Armies Drive
Pass Leipzig
Germans Open Up With
Artillery On Yanks As
Miles From Berlin

AAsAot oHAANN~Jt
(P) - U. S. First and Third
Army tanks drove deep be-
yond besieged Leipzig and
within IS miles of the Rus
sian lines yesterday while the
Germans opened up with ar
tillery against the Ninth
Army front less than As miles
west of Berlin.
A German radio commentator to.
day described the Third Army
drive, which had reached within
seven miles of Chemnitz, as "sig-
nificant," and predicted it's speedy
exploitation FIR a link-up with
Marshal Ivan S. Konev's First
Ukrainian army in Silesia.
The same commentator declar.
ed Berlin now was "a front-line
city, and may well reckon with
defense simultaneously against the
western Allies anG the Soviets."
The Americans west of Berlin
moved up to the twice-breached
Elbe river on a 9O-lnile-wide front
while some $50 Raj heavy bomb
ers subjected Berlin and the SUBJ
urban garrison town of Potsdam
to a heavy night bombing.
Entry Imminent
(The American broadcasting sta.
ton in Europe told the German
people that the entry into Berlin
was Imminent" and asserted
Estate of tension" existef- in the
capital, now menaced by American
forces As miles away and Russian
troops 80 miles away.)
AS American armored columns
roared 10 miles or more eastward
under a partial news blackout in
the center of Germany, one infan-
try unit was only 10 miles from
the Czech frontier.
The First's Ninth Armored Di-
vision and the Thirds Fourth and
Sixth Armored Divisions had
struck so deep into the enemy's
rear that the Germans now must
turn for a back-to-back death
stand or be cut off from retreat
into the southern mountains.
Already this mountain fortress
of Bavaria and Austria had been
penetrated on the north by vt an
other Third Army column the
Eleventh Armored Division-which
roared into the Wagnerian city Of
Bayreuth, 124 miles north of Mum
ich and 173 miles from Hitler's
retreat at Berchtesgaden.
Battle For Leipzig
The battle for refugee-packed
Leipzig, rs miles southwest of Ber-
lin, Numbered into it's second day.
The Ninth Armored Division quit
the Leipzig siege and joined the
powerful eastward push.
North of Leipzig, the First Ar
my's Third Armored Division
broke loose on 30-mile gallop
that reached point three miles
south of Dessau, six miles from
the Elbe river, and SIS miles south
west of Berlin itself.
The U. S. Ninth Army forced 4
second crossing of the Elbe river
at an undisclosed point on it's
looping front bullying within IS
miles Of Berlin, and was batter
ing against the capitals leveled
antiaircraft guns as it strove to
build up the bridgehead.
The Germans on this front also
were being forced to fight back to
back with the Russian lines 90
miles away, but there was as vet
no indication that any forces had
been disengaged from the eastern
front to attempt to save the ruin
ed capital.
Berlin in fact reported the Rus.
slams were about to launch
mighty offensive along the Oder
and Neisse rivers east of the Reich
capital.
Far behind this front, two big
German cities fell - Brunswick,
manufacturing center with
a population of pol 200, and the
Ruhr's Dortmund. with a popula-
ton of $4,000.
In Final Stage
The battle to liquidate the Ruhr
pocket was in its final phase. It
had shrunk to one-fifth its original
size and 114,000 of the estimated
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