Imperial Valley Press

YANK
PARATROOPS
HIT
BEHIND
NAZI
LINES
Sky
Units
Pace
Rampant
Army
in

Berlin
Road
Start Blasting Trail to Capital
As Yanks Storm Hannover City:
Fleeing Germans Burn Own Cities

PARIS, April 9. (UP)-The American First Army burst out of its
Weser River bridgehead Monday and raced 18 miles or more to within
70 miles of Magdeburg, Berlin's main outer fortress on the Elbe river.

PARIS. April 9. (UP)--American paratroops were
reported dropping far behind the German lines in the path
of the Berlin-bound U. S. First Army Monday as other
Yank and British forces to the north stormed into the out-
skirts of Hannover and Bremen.

The German DNB news agency said 500 or more Amer-
ican parachutists were showering down into the 38-mile
corridor between Hann-Muenden and Muelhausen in an at-
tempt to blaze a trail across the Werra river for the main
First Army force.

There was no immediate confirmation of the enemy
report, which failed to make the usual claim that the para-
troops had been"wiped out."

PLAN TO LINK WERRA AND WESER RIVER LINES

The reported airborne operation apparently was in-
tended to turn the Werra river, southeastern tributary of
the Weser, and link up with American Third Army forces
in the Muehlhausen area.

The First Army, cloaked by a partial security black-
out, already had shattered the German defenses along the
Weser river northeast of Hann-Muenden and advanced 13
miles or more beyond the stream.

A juncture with the Third Army would plant the two
American forces on the Berlin side of the last important
water barriers west of the Elbe, 100 miles to the east. The
Elbe loops back to within 43 miles of the German capital
north of Magdeburg.

Meanwhile, American Ninth Army troops in the north
laid siege to Hannover and struck out beyond the city to-
ward Brunswick, 104 miles west of Berlin, while the British
opened their assault on Bremen.

American Ninth and British Sec-
ond Army forces were advancing
almost at will across the north Ger-
man plain in twin offensives headed
for Berlin and the Baltic seacoast.

FIRES SEEN EVERYWHERE

Their armored outriders reported
mysterious fires burning in towns
and cities all along the line of
march, indicating that the fleeing
Nazis were putting the torch to
their own countryside in a ruthless
attempt to slow the Allied advance.

Bremen itself was aflame under
the terrific cannonading of British
guns massed before the great sea-
port's southern and southeastern
outskirts. Veteran British tank and
infantry formations were reported
moving in behind the barrage to
root out the German garrison.

Almost 60 miles to the southeast,
American Ninth Army forces drove
into the outskirts of Hannover from
the south, southeast and north, and
broke loose on the main Berlin
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military highway north of the city.

British airborne infantrymen also were swinging down from the north to join the assault, and all accounts pointed to the early fall of the big communications hub.

Hildesheim, 15 miles southeast of Hannover and 130 miles due west of Berlin, was captured by American armored columns and late dispatches indicated they were striking out eastward for the Nazi capital.

CLAMP HOLLAND TRAP

Far to the west, Canadian ground troops linked up with thousands of Allied paratroopers dropped across northeastern Holland before dawn Sunday. The juncture closed off the last practicable escape roads for perhaps 50,000 Germans pinned down on the Dutch bomb coast around Rotterdam, Amsterdam and The Hague.

Another great trap was being compressed in the bypassed Ruhr basin. American Ninth Army troops ground down into the northern flank of the Ruhr against savage opposition, while U.S. First Army forces battled into the eastern and southeastern sides of the pockets.

More than 16,000 of the estimated 150,000 Germans originally caught in the Ruhr trap already had been captured by the two American armies and thousands more are reported streaming into prison cages early Monday.

PERIL KRUPP WORKS

Vanguards of the Ninth Army were fighting through the streets of both Dortmund and Essen, and late dispatches said the doughboys were nearing Essen's great Krupp works.

There was no immediate word on the progress of the First Army columns slashing out from their bridgeheads across a 40-mile stretch of the Weser and Werra rivers east of the Ruhr.

The Americans were across both rivers in great strength at points 140 miles or less due west of Berlin, and front correspondents said there appeared to be no coherent opposition in their path.

The blacked-out First Army spearheads captured Goettingen, 13 miles east of the river and the most advanced point on the bridgehead line extending from Witzenhausen, 13 miles to the south, to Lauenforde, more than 25 miles to the northwest.

More than 15,000 German wounded were captured in the Goettingen hospital, indicating the speed and confusion of the German flight in that area.