The Pittsburgh Press (April 15, 1945)
YANKS NEAR BERLIN OUTSKIRTS
Entry imminent, London says
Rampaging Americans 80-odd miles from juncture with Reds
Saturday, April 14, 1945
BULLETIN
LONDON, England (UP) – The London Sunday Express said today that “new behind-the-scenes developments” had reached London which indicated the complete collapse of Germany was at hand.
Closing in on Berlin, the U.S. Ninth Army advanced under a news blackout, but some unofficial reports put the Americans as close as 13 miles from Berlin. The U.S. First Army, to the south, neared Dessau, in the Elbe River region, after a 30-mile advance. Third Army troops aimed for Dresden and a juncture with the Red Army. Seventh Army troops drove into Bamberg, north of Nuremberg. In the north, the British Second Army reached Uelzen, southeast of Hamburg, while the Canadian First Army closed in on Emden and the North Sea.
PARIS, France (UP) – Rampaging American armies were bearing down on Berlin today, perhaps less than 21 miles away, and were no more than 80-odd miles from a juncture with massed Russian armies pressing through the Reich from the east.
The London press said the American entry into Berlin might be announced at any hour.
The American news blackout on the fighting before Berlin apparently has been the most complete and extended of the war. Developments may be almost three days ahead of the news reports.
West of Berlin, the U.S. Ninth Army put a second task force across the Elbe onto the Berlin Plain, joining the 2nd “Hell on Wheels” Armored Division which fought toward the tottering Nazi capital under a news blackout extended into its third day.
Radio Luxembourg said the 2nd Armored Division was only 13 miles from the capital’s outskirts and the Germans said it was 21 miles away as of yesterday.
The Paris radio, frequently unreliable, said the Ninth Army was in Berlin’s outskirts.
As the hour of victory in Europe neared, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower returned to Supreme Allied Headquarters after a tour of the front.
The U.S. First and Third Armies rammed a 75-mile-wide armored wedge into the rear of Nazi forces facing the Russians in a gigantic drive to cut off the main German army – perhaps more than a million men – in a 25,000-square-mile pocket including Berlin and extending to the Baltic.
Cutting supply roads
Six armored columns were racing across the dwindling supply highways and railroads from remaining Nazi arsenals in Czechoslovakia and Austria.
Tanks of Lt. Gen. George S. Patton’s Third Army, outflanking Berlin far to the south, plunged beyond Leipzig and were within 80-odd miles of a junction with the Russians which will cut the main German armies in the north from their last stand mountain redoubt in the south. Another Patton column entered the northern fringes of the redoubt, at Bayreuth, only 167 miles northwest of Hitler’s Berchtesgaden retreat and 102 miles from Western Austria.
1st Army paces drive
Lt. Gen. Courtney H. Hodges’ First Army’s 3rd Armored Division paced the announced advances of Allied armies by sending three tank columns through Berlin’s southern defenses, one to within five miles of the middle Elbe at Dessau and 55 miles from the capital. Other First Army forces tightened the arc around Leipzig, fifth largest city of the Reich, and fought within four miles of Halle.
Scottish troops of the British Second Army joined the race for Berlin from the northwest. Fighting into Uelzen, 97 miles from the capital and 22 miles from the Elbe, driving the Germans ahead of them in mass flight.
Lt. Gen. Alexander M. Patch’s U.S. Seventh Army, fighting through Bavaria along Gen. Patton’s southern flank, captured the city of Bamberg, and moved toward the Nazi shrine center of Nuremberg, 29 miles to the south.
Gain in Ruhr
Far behind the spearheads, the battle of the Ruhr neared an end as the First and Ninth Armies, taking another 19,904 prisoners for a Ruhr total of 1,100,000, reached within 2½ miles of cutting the pocket in two near Hagen. One report said those forces had met, spitting the diehard Nazis.
Resistance in the Holland pocket weakened suddenly as Canadian First Army troops captured or fought into four major German anchor towns – Arnhem, Deventer, Zwolle and Groningen – and reached within seven miles of the North Sea near the Ems River estuary.
The Americans were threatening or fighting in six German cities: Dresden, Leipzig, Magdeburg, Chemnitz, Halle and Dessau.
Prisoners were pouring into the rear areas so rapidly it was almost impossible to take care of them. The First Army bagged 34,847 alone on Friday – believed to be a one-day record for the Western Front.
Hard battle reported
The blackout on Lt. Gen. William H. Simpson’s Ninth Army drive on Berlin prevented correspondents from revealing anything of the fighting beyond the Elbe.
But the London radio said the Germans were battling furiously on Berlin’s near approaches and massing tank forces for blows against the flanks of Gen. Simpson’s Berlin-bound spearheads.
The London Evening Standard said private dispatches from Allied generals to the British government conveyed sensational news. The Standard said a sensational double announcement – the entry of Allied troops in Berlin and capitulation of the German Army – was expected hourly.
The American Broadcasting Station in Europe said the entry into Berlin was imminent and there was terrific tension in the Reich capital as the Ninth Army approached.
Allied Supreme Headquarters disclosed that the Ninth Army made a second crossing of the Elbe, but did not name the place. These reports said the Ninth Army was fighting at three other places along the Elbe at Tangermuende, Stendal and Osterburg, from 28 to 43 miles north of Magdeburg.
Saturday’s dispatches placed the 5th Armored Division at Tangermuende and also at Seehausen, 51 miles north of Magdeburg, presumably forcing a river crossing.
The 15th Scottish Division of the British Second Army was driving for the Elbe on the Americans northern flank, striking 23 miles through cracking German resistance to drive into Uelzen, 22 miles west of the Elbe and 27 miles northwest of Berlin.
The drive into Uelzen met resistance from fanatical Hitler Youth units battling with bazookas. But a mass flight was in progress between Uelzen and the Elbe, with the enemy using even double-deck buses under the blasting of British fighter-bombers and rocket-firing planes.
The Scots, supported in their breakout from their Aller River bridgehead above Hanover by British armor and Welsh troops, were threatening to outflank the large port of Hamburg by their eastward drive some 40 miles south.
The U.S. First Army drive toward Berlin was as of noon Saturday and it was believed Gen. Hodges’ tanks might already be at the Elbe, which flows from east to west in that area. Dispatches said the First Army was going so fast that front reports were being delayed hours and even days.
One column advanced 30 miles to reach a point three miles south of Dessau, a city of 130,000 and five miles from the Elbe which has three bridges at Dessau. Another reached Koethen, 10 miles southwest of Dessau and a third hit Sandersleben, 25 miles southwest of Dessau.
The 104th “Timberwolves” Infantry Division battled to within four miles of Halle, 24 miles southwest of Dessau, and 15 miles northwest of Leipzig. The 9th Armored Division built a siege arc halfway around Leipzig and sent om task force into its southeastern outskirts. The Ninth crossed the Elster River and reached the Pleisse River at Bergisdorf, 15 miles south of Leipzig.
The Germans were offering tough resistance at Leipzig, battling with artillery, mortars and small arms on all of the city’s approaches.