LIEGE EDITION Today Is THE mm Today Is D+298 Daily Mews paper of U.S. Armed Forces in the European Theater of Operations D+298 Vol. I—No. 71 Saturday, March 31, 1945 Allies Closing Ring on Ruhr Reds Seize Hodges' Left Hook Flanks Ruhr Bocholt I 1st Army, British Danzig and Only 55 Mi. Apart; 45 U-Boats Marshal Stalin last night announc- ed the capture of Danzig, with 10,000 9th's Armor Loose prisoners and 45 submarines, and the seizure of five Nazi strongpoints in Complete encirclement of the Ruhr appeared imminent last night a» a 31-mile breakthrough along the tanks of the First U.S. and Second British Armies were within 55 mile* north bank of the Danube east of Vienna. of alinkup northeast of the last great industrial region of the Beich. Berlin announced at the same time that German troops had given up their The Germans were rushing armor and self-propelled guns into the hold on the west bank section of Kustrin gap in a desperate effort to block the junction, but latest reports said the, on the Oder, 40 miles east of Berlin. Allied spearheads were still unchecked. Hitler's troops also yielded their last foothold east of the Oder at Lengenberg, Meanwhile, Ninth U.S. Army tanks broke out of their lower Rhine northwest of Kustrin. Evacuation of the bridgehead and drove east, but their farthest advances were screened by neighboring bridgehead of Zehden, 28 security silence. The exact location of the British tanks was not disclosed, miles northwest of Kustrin, was announc- but the First Army's Third Armd. Div. drove into Paderborn, more than ed Thursday. Moscow dispatches,, meanwhile, made 90 miles due east of Wesel, and last night was pushing on toward a junction witM clear that Stalin's order Thursday night the British. announcing "liquidation of the German grouping encircled southwest of Koenigs- Heavies Hit Ninth Armored Near Kassel berg" did not, as first Interpreted, mean To the south, meanwhile, other armor* the capture of the East Prussian capital ed units of the First and Third TJ.Sj city as well. Naval Bases Army drove northeast toward Kassel, OB) A United Press dispatch from Moscow the road to Berlin. The First's Ninth Armd. Div. reached! said: "Though the capture .and annihilat- Twenty-three hundred American planes ion of 130,000 men southwest of Koenig- Fritzlar, 15 miles from Kassel, which put struck a triple blow yesterday at Ger- it more than 100 miles east of the Rhine sberg hopelessly isolated Koenigsberg, its Stars and Stripes Map by Brown garrison showed no inclination to surren- many's northern ports of Hamburg, Bre- and less than 200 miles from Berlin* Encirclement of the industrial Ruhr appeared imminent last night as First U.S. men and Wilhelmshaven. der, and Koenigsberg, like Breslau and The Seventh Armd. Div. was at a point Army tanks drove northward info Paderborn and armor of British Second and Fourteen hundred Flying Fortresses 25 miles from Kassel. Danzig, will have to be taken street by Ninth U.S. Armies smashed east from lower Rhine bridgeheads. Meanwhile, street." and Liberators, escorted by 900 Thun- The Third Army's Fourth Armd. Div* First and Third spearheads pushed northeast below Kassel, while another rolling against slight resistance, reached The first of Stalin's two orders last derbolts and Mustangs, composed the Third Army tip was beyond Main River in Aschaf fenburg area. Lauterbach, 35 miles south of Fritzlan night said Marshal Rodion Malinovsky's Eighth AF armada which attacked during and 95 miles east of the Rhine, and drove northern wing had forced the Hron and the afternoon. • ' At Bremen, B17s hit at the Deschimag seven miles northeast in the deepest Nitra Rivers north of the Danube and announced advance by the Third Army* captured Kormano, Nove Zamky, "Vrable, Shipbuilding Yards, where submarines Germans Blow Up Bridges Third, First Armies Join Suray and Komjatice, all 50 to 55 miles are built, and a highway bridge being east of Bratislava. That portion of converted for rail use. The Third Army's Sixth Armd. Dir. Kormano south of the Danube already B24s bombed the naval yards at Wil- reached Treysa, 30 miles southwest of was in Russian hands. Almost in Tankers' Faces helmshaven, long an Allied target from Kassel, and linked with the First Army** Ninth Armd. Div. Polish Flag Over Danzigr the air. Recent reconnaissance photo- By Frnest f.eiser graphs showed a large number of craft Encirclement of the Ruhr would bag The second order, addressed to Marshal at Wllhplmshaven. one of the world's greatest concentration* Konstantln Rokossovsky, disclosed the Stars and Stripes Stiff Writer The Blohm and Voss U-boat Yard and of war industry as well as more thaw capture of Danzig, "an important port and WITH AN EASTBOUND ARMORED SPEARHEAD, Mar. 30—Ninth ten enemy divisions left to defend it. first-class naval base," and announced a petroleum storage depot were the Ham. Army tanks have cut loose and today are rolling across Germany in the burg targets. In seven days, the Allies east of the that the Polish national flag had been general direction of Berlin. At dawn, after riding all night, the tanks Ninth AF yesterday sent 700 fighter- Rhine have gained control of an are*) hoisted over the city. Besides prisoners the size of the state of Delaware. ; ' , reached a water barrier only to find all bombers against enemy tanks and gun and submarines, the Russians toojj 140 The east bound Ninth Army tanks bro- the bridges down, almost blown up in positions while 275 medium and light tanks and self-propelled guns and 356 ke out of the bridgehead Thursday night artillery pieces. their faces by Germans scurrying across bombers raided tank and motor transport and were still rolling late yesterday., Of Marshal Peodor Tolbukhin's advance Royal Navy the plains in retreat. repair depots. Blown bridges checked the armor mo- Into Austria south Vienna there was While the rest of the spearhead toiled Twenty-ninth TAC pilots attacked ene- of mentarily, but lack of strong resistance little news. Moscow dispatches said he at the edge of the water course doughs my airfields and Ninth TAC flew 200 was moving toward Vienna alorjg at least RaidsRynkyii from an accompanying infantry regi- sorties against motor transport and rail- enabled the fast-moving spearheads te five highways, closing in on the Wehr- ment crossed the remains of one bridge, yards. (Continued on Page *) macht's main supply route from Vienna flushed out the Nazis from the eastern to Italy* and also the Vienna-Graz railway, GUAM, Mar. 30 (ANS>—Adm. Chester approaches, and made a a secure bridge- supplying troops In southern Austria and W. Nimltz announced today that the head for the engineers coming- up. Yugoslavia. British fleet struck its first blow of the Less than four hours after the infan- Races RightOff the Map war at the Japanese island empire Mon- trymen crossed, engineers had laid a day and Tuesday, adopting what some tank-bearing Bailey across the broken By Ken Zumwalt i Burgomeisters Guarded observers termed "revolutionary methods bridge, and the armor rolled again. Stars and Stripes Staff Writer of operations" to do it. The tankers got off to a slow start last After Aachen Slaying- night on traffic-choked roads filled with HOLZHACSEN, Germany, Mar. 28 (Delayed)—Dog Company of this British planes flying from "some of armored reconnaissance battalion is well out in front after racing'90 mile* AACHEN, Mar. 30 (UP)—Every burgo- the most powerful ships In the British other advancing units as well as their meister behind the American lines in Navy" blasted airfields in the 3akashi- own. But by midnight, armor, the half- in a little more than 60 hours, but that's about all tBe CO, Capt. Herbert ma group of Japan's Ryukyu Islands, tracks, Jeeps and trucks bringing up Zimmerman, of Wttliamsville, N.Y., knows about his position. occupied Germany in First and Ninth Armies' Jurisdiction has been placed j along the southern approach to the supplies were roaring steadily across the Holzhausen is somewhere in the Hesse-Nassau district, but just where under constant guard. mainland. moonlit, thin clouded and rain-swept fiat land. Zimmerman can't tell because he's outrun his maps. This follows the "parachute" assassi- The attack indicated a marked change Dog Company took out after the Germans early today and passed: nation of Pranz Oppenhof—the first di- from previous methods of supply. Never By dawn, the forward elements had rect Nazi reprisal against a German na- before has the British fleet used a float- hit the water barrier where the Germans through five villages before reaching Holahausen, largest place the company blew the bridges, one only a few minutes tional actively cooperating with '.he ing supply train large enough to permit has entered since it left Altenkirchen. Allies, according to a German radio such long range operations. before the first of our vehicles reached it. Another bridge went sky high as one The district is mountainous and many of the towns have steel smelter* broadcast, .which said Oppenhof's death Meanwhile. Tokyo reported at least 500 of our patrols was crossing. One man and railway terminals. There was a large mill at Oberscheld, while a* ■was ordered by a Nazi tribunal. carrier planes had pounded southern Ja- was killed and several were wounded. Herrnberg there was a large railyard and several intact freight cars. pan yesterday. Those Germans who remained behind White flags fly from windows. At Trigenstein the streets were filled Nimltz' communique disclosed that 20 sniped at the advancing Yanks from the See Any Newsprint? Japanese aircraft and one small coastal with civilians.