March 23, 1945; German Disastrous, Defeat:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, MARCH 23, 1945:

Fredrerick, MD., Friday March 23, 1945

100,000 GERMAN

CAPTIVES TAKEN

BY DOUGHBOYS

Montgomery Launches

Artillery Screen For

Rhine Crossing

DISASTROUS DEFEAT

SUFFERED BY ENEMY

By AUSTIN BEALMEAR

Paris, March 22 (AP)—

Two U. S. armies crushed all major resistance west of the Rhine today 'in the last

phase of a battle that cost the Germans 100,000 captives alone, and the enemy said the river barrier was about to be stormed both from  f the Palintate  and opposite the Ruhr which was blasted by thousands of Allied airplanes.

One German report said Lt. Gen. George S. Patton's Third Army had massed 300 regular and amphibious  tanks and strong engineering and motorized units for a smash into the mountainous inner core of the Reich.

Another declared that Field Marshal Sir Bernard L. Montgomery had opened a thunderous artillery barrage to screen a Rhine crossing west of Wesel, adding to destruction wrought by the thousands of warplanes, which throughout the

day sowed, ruin through the Ruhr Valley.

Disaster For German Arms Third Army strategists now were free to plan the crossing of the Rhine, for possibly no more than 4,000 German effectives remained

in action west of the stream after one of the worst disasters ever visited on German arms.

ANOTHER ISLAND

IS OCCUPIED BY

AMERICAN UNITS

40th Division Hops From

Panay To Guimaras

Without Opposition

CEBU IS ATTACKED

BY HEAVY BOMBERS

By JAMES HUTCHESON

Manila. Friday, March 23 (AP)—

Fortieth Division Doughboys, invaders of Panay, hopped across a mile and one-half strait and seizedm25-mile-long Guimaras Island without opposition Wednesday in a move to safeguard the shipping lane into the captured port of Iloilo.

Heavy bombers, meanwhile , lashed Cebu Island with 240 tons, of explosives in three successive days.

Mountainous Guimaras is directly opposite Iloilo and helps form one of the best harbors and seaplane bases in the Central Philippines.

Reported By MacArthur

Gen. Douglas MacArthur reported this 27th island invasion of the Philippines in his communique today, announcing only that "in a shore-to-shore operation our troops seized Guimaras island, southeast of Panay."

The heavy bombing of Cebu Island, across the Camotes Sea from Leyte, was concentrated on Japanese bivouac and supply areas in the vicinity of Cebu city, midway along the island's east coast.