March 18, 1945;Coblenz Falls/Entire Saar Ovwerrun:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, MARCH 18, 1945:

CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA      SUNDAY MARCH 18, 1945

Rhine Escape Gaps;

Bombers Smash 175

Bridgehead Yanks Cross German's

Military Highway at Third Point;

Entire Enemy Defense Crumbling

PARIS (UP).—

Lt. Gen. George S. Patton's third army captured the major Rhineland city of Coblenz. Saturday while three of his tank divisions were enveloping the rich Saar basin area approaching a juncture with the U. S. seventh army, less than 50 miles away.

Three third army tank divisions, plus other tank battalions  attached to infantry, already were 40 miles south of Coblenz, in the swiftest power drive of the war. They reached the Nahe river and were threatening the 11-way road and rail junction of Bad Kreuznach. the transportation key to the Saar basin.

Authoritative sources at Gen. Omar N. Bradley's 12lh army group headquarters said the Germans had  waited too long to effect a successful withdrawal from the Saarr to the east bank of the Rhine and would elect to stand and fight with the remnants of their first and

" said seventh armies rather than attempt a last-minute helter-skelter retreat.

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Civilians Fleeing

LONDON. — American flyers observed a mass of German civilians in confused flight eastward Saturday on the Hitler superhighway east of Cologne.

"There were long lines of men, women and children, all pulling, pushing or carrying something and all moving eastward, Said, John H Rogers, Shepherdstown, West VA. Busy every moment of the day, Ninth Airforce fighter bombers again did their utmost to prevent movement of German troops either Into the Remagen bridgehead area or into the new action area below Coblenz.

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Reds Expect

Fall of Ports

Within Hours

Baltic Sea Wedge

Is Driven Between

Danzig and Gdynia

LONDON* (UP).—

Russian troops smashed through to the Baltic sea, between Danzig and Gydnia today, dividing the defenders of those prize ports, while German broadcasts reported that a new Soviet offensive southeast of Berlin had brought about a "supreme crisis."

The Soviets apparently reached Danzig bay in the area of Zoppot, a peace-time gambling resort between Danzig and Gdynia, a Moscow dispatch said. Other Russians! stormed suburban Altdamm across: the Oder mouth from burning:

Stettin and it appeared that all three ports might be in Soviet hands in a matter of days if not hours.