Monday, February 11, 2013

February 11, 1945;GERMANY TAKES DESPARATE STEPS:


THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1945:





HURON;,, SOUTH DAKOTA, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1945
Elbing Taken;
Ring Tightens
About Breslau
LONDON. Feb. 11. M'I —
Russian troops captured the East Prussian port of Elbing and drove a new Pomeranian spearhead to within 52 miles of the Baltic yesterday, while Berlin announced that other powerful southern formations had broken into the suburbs
of Liefinitz, bis industrial city and road hub guarding the back door to Breslau. lower Silesian capital.
The battle for Berlin's immediate approaches was cloaked in security silence by Moscow, but German broadcasts indicated that the Red Army had broken the last substantial Nazi resistance east of the Oder River and had crossed the stream in great strength at points 30 to 43 miles from Berlin.
Marshal Ivan S. Konev's First Ukraine Army in Silesia was reported to have smashed 25 miles west of the Oder River in two days, penetrating to within P2
miles of Dresden, German Saxony stronghold 90 miles below imperiled Berlin, but Moscow's communique did not mention this sector either.
Announce Elbing's Fall An order of the day signed by Premier Stalin, presumably still put the "Big Three" meeting in the Black Sea area, announced the fall of Elbing, 32 miles southeast of Danzig and 05 miles southwest of besieged Koenigsberg, East Prussian capital.
Marshal K. K. Rokossovsky's Second White Russian Army toppled Elbing, smashed a fanatically-resisting garrison which had been bolstered by German
Marine units, and captured 4,300 prisoners Thursday and Friday, Moscow said.

Nazis Flood Roer Valley As
.Canadians Smash Near Kleve
Enemy Takes
desperate Steps
To Bolster Line
By EDWARD KENNEDY
PARIS, Feb. 11. (tF)
The Germans blew the gates of the biggest Roer River dam and sent a flood roaring north along the valley in an attempt to bolster their western defenses, already quakng to the shock of Canadian First Army forces battling near the
edge of Kleve.
Unable further to d e f e n d Schwammenauel Dam, the enemy dynamited its gates and thereby threw away a trump with which it had held back an Allied smash into the Ruhr and Rhineland since November.
Had they blown the whole Roer system of seven dams at once, an 18-foot tide would have swept down upon the British Second and U. S. Ninth Army positions
along the river, creating havoc that would have taken considerable
time to repair.
Juclich Flooded.
A front dispatch said that the enemy stronghold of Juelich was flooded by a three-foot rise, but that the river already was falling upstream at Dueren and should return to normal in several days.
Even the destruction of the dams themselves, once the Schwammenauel reservoirs emptied, would not produce an additional handicap co the Allies, this account said.

Japs Are Making Last-Ditch Stand
MANILA, Sunday, Feb. 11
/P) — The 37th Division battled through Saturday with Japanese utilizing houses and
public buildings in South Manila as pillboxes and fortified strongpoints.
The Japanese still have artillery emplaced in the area to aid them in their last stand.
Headquarters said in today's communique that the 37th "is systematically sweeping
the city south of Pasig river in the Pandacan and Srmita districts."
Units Joined
The First Cavalry Division, the first unit to. enter Manila a week ago yesterday, now has joined the 37th in the fight south of the Pasig.
Headquarters disclosed the Firs Cavalry struck east through new Manila and then, south, crossing the Pasig River near San Pedro Makate "to operate in conjunction
with the 37th Division."
New Manila is a mile north of liberated Santo Tomas internment camp.
Blast Fortresses
In the Manila Bay sector, where Tokyo radio has reported the American navy is preparing an entry, bombers blasted the island fortress of Corregidor and Mariveles on the south tip 'of Bataan Peninsula with 101 tons of explosives

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