March 12, 1945;

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, MARCH 12, 1945:

ABILENE, TEXAS, MONDAY MORNING, MARCH 12, 1945- EIGHT PAGES

First Takes

Eight Towns

By AUSTIN BEALMEAR

PARIS, Monday March 12.—(AP)—

American First Army troops surged steadily ahead today, expanding their bridgehead on the east bank of the Rhine—now nine miles wide by three miles deep—with magnificent air and artillery support holding enemy resistance to a minimum.

The Americans have overrun eight towns in the bridgehead area, an Associated Press front dispatch said.

Supreme Allied headquarters, in reporting that the First Army still was surging forward, said the Allies had liquidated the last Germans in the stubbornly defended salient at Wesel and completed occupation of virtually all of the Reich territory west of the Rhine and north of the Moselle. Lt. Gen. Courtney H. Hodges' First Army doughboys—exploiting the advantage gained by the surprise surge across the Rhine .Wednesday—pushed ~ forward more than a mile at several places in the bridgehead opposite Remagen.

A dispatch by Associated Press Correspondent Don Whitehead from the bridgehead, disclosing the seizure of eight German towns on the Rhine's east bank, said the Americans were hauling big artillery pieces across the river to add further

sinew to their steadily tightening clutch on the Rhine's east bank.

Allies Will Yet Be Broken,

No Repeat of 18, Says Hitler

LONDON, March 11—(AP)—

Adolf Hitler, declaring the Allies are "drunk by their orgy of victory" and intend to destroy the German nation, exhorted Germans today to fanatical resistance until the Allies "get tired and will yet be broken."

"The year 1918 will .not be repeated," declared a manifesto in Hitler's name marking the loth anniversary of military conscription. It was broadcast from Berlin.

Offering a pallid hope of distant victory, Hitler asserted "only those suffer defeat who are unworthy of winning Victory" and indicated Germany would fight on in guerrilla resistance if her armies were smashed.

"We witness both in the east and in the west what our people would have to face. Our task is therefore clear: to put up resistance and to wear down our enemies so long that until, in the end, they will get tired and will yet be broken. Everybody

has therefore to fulfill his duty."

Reds Report Split of

Pomeranian Forces

LONDON, Monday March 12.—(AP)—

Red Army spearheads thrusting east and north in the territory northwest of

Danzig, are-shredding, northeastern Pomerania-into small; isolated sectors and threatening to -separate the 'trapped German defenders of Danzig and Poland's pre-war port of Gdynia, Moscow disclosed last night, German broadcasts insisted that the Nazi front between. Danzig and Gdynia had not been split, but the Soviet communique broadcast from Moscow reported Russian troops were within eight miles of the bay of Danzig between the two cities, having captured Koelln, 12 miles northwest of Danzig and nine southwest of Gdynia.

Supers Sear Nagoya;

41st Pushes Invasion

By RAY CRONIN, Associated Press War Editor

A second heavy incendiary smash against the Japanese homeland within 48 hours—a 2,000-ton fire bomb raid on industrial Nagoya by some 300 American Superfortresses—and a Yank invasion near Zamboanga, in the southern Philippines, highlighted developments in the fast moving Pacific war Sunday.

The massive force of B-29s, flying from the Marianas, rained fire on five square miles in the heart of Nagoya, great Japanese aircraft and industrial center and vital railway hub. The giant bombers dropped their incendiaries visually at the amazingly low altitude of 5,000 feet. They hit during the hours of darkness early Monday (Japanese time), catching the Nipponese unprepared.

The sensational Nagoya raid, the eighth on that city, came 48 hours after a similar smash against the heart r>t Tokyo during which 15 square miles of Japan's capital were reduced to rubble. Yank reconnaissance

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21ST U. S. BOMBER COMMAND, Guam, Monday, March 12.—

(AP)—Some B-29 Superfortress crews resuming from today's Nagoya

raid saw fires they started in Japan's third largest city probably

wouldn't be as damaging as the conflagration they left in Tokyo 48

hours earlier.

Capt. Earl A. Russell of Stamford, Te\.. reported: "The fires

looked pretty good and were burning out a nice area but I don't think

they'll compare with Tokyo." His plane was over the target 20 minutes

after the first bombs were dropped.

"It was a lot rougher than over Tokyo," he added. "They were laying

for us but we had a pretty good run.”

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fliers reported that at least seven major tires still flamed in Tokyo shortlybefore noon Sunday (Japanese time).

At his Guam headquarters Maj. Gen. Curtis Lemay, chief of the 21st Bomber command, said. "All the Japs have to look forward to is the total destruction of their industries, cities and other vital targets devoted to their war effort."