March 8, 1945; Japanese Setback in Burma:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, MARCH 8, 1955:

ABILENE, TEXAS, THURSDAY MORNING, MARCH 8, 1945-TWELVE PAGES

90th 11th Armored Take

Towns in Enemy's Rout

PARIS, Thursday, March 8.-(AP)-

Tanks of the American Third

Army stormed up to the west bank of the Rhine northwest of Coblenz

last night, having plunged more than 50 miles inside Germany in a

whirlwind advance that sent the enemy reeling in chaotic defeat.

The German collapse on the Third Army front, started by the Fourth Armored divisions break-through at Bitburg three days ago, soon developed into a rout with other units of the Third Army plunging eastward and the First Army- swinging southward after the capture of Cologne.

It was the Ardennes break-through in reverse. The Germans obviously had nothing

with which to prevent the American sweep from enveloping Coblenz and Bonn.

Dispatches said there actually was no semblance of a front in the Third Army sector.

Virtually all resistance had been overwhelmed and the German troops appeared concerned only with retreating to safety or surrendering as quickly as possible. Masses of Nazi equipment were destroyed and supply dumps were captured so rapidly that the loot 'had not been evaluated.

Japs Suffer Big

Burma Setback

By The Associated Press

American Marines, hitting the Japanese lines heavily on northern Iwo Jima, punched out gains of 100 to 500 yards against continued fierce resistance, Fleet Adm. Chester W. Nimitz reported late Wednesday.

A The Japanese suffered two major reverses in Burma. American-trained Chinese forces captured Old Lashio, on the Burma road. To the southwest powerful British pincers were closing on Mandalay, the great Nippon base in central Burma:

In Gen. Douglas MacArthur's command sector, his ground troops on Luzon reached the south shore of the island for the first time at Balayan bay. Planes of his command went after shipping along the Asiatic mainland, sinking a destroyer, probably sinking a corvette and sinking or damaging freighters.

On bloody Iwo the Fifth Marine division, on the west

flank, and the Third division in the center of the line gained up to 500 yards. On the east the Fourth division made 100 to 200 yards in local sectors.

HONOLULU, March ^.—(AP)—

Five thousand white gauze surgical masks have been rushed by the Red Cross to Iwo Jima to protect American Marines from sulphur dust and volcanic ash as they fight the bloody battle for that strategic Island.

REDS OPEN BERLIN DRIVE

FROM ODER BRIDGEHEADS

LONDON, Thursday, March 8.-(AP)—

The Russians hurled seven armies yesterday into an all-out frontal offensive towards Berlin from bridgeheads on the Oder river 3 to 40 miles to the east, the Germans announced.

Moscow was officially silent, as is customary at the star of a major operation, but unofficial dispatches from the Soviet capital hinted guardedly that the German accounts might be substantially correct..