ABILENE, TEXAS, SUNDAY' MORNING,
APRIL 22, 1945-THIRTY-EIGHT PAGES IN THREE SECTIONS
16-Army Assault Puts
Force 3 Miles in City
LONDON,
April 22-(AP)-The Germans announced last night
that Red
army tanks had burst three to four miles inside the flaming
rubble-strewn
streets of barricaded Berlin in an overwhelming 16-
army assault
on the three-quarters encircled Nazi capital—biggest
prize of two
world wars. Moscow, whose official reports were running
24 hours
behind German announcements, did not immediately confirm
the dramatic
flash from doomed Berlin. But a Moscow dispatch
filed hours
before said a Red army entry into the Nazi citadel was
"imminent."
The Soviet high
command said (hat veteran Russian forces, who have marched 1,000 miles from The
gates of Moscow in one of the greatest military comebacks in history, were "engaged
in fighting at Berlin's outskirts" and had captured Erkncr on the city's
eastern
limits and seven
other fortress suburbs three to 16 miles from the capital.
FORMAL ANNOUNCEMENT ""
OF JUNCTURE IMMINENT
PARIS,
Sunday, April 22.—(AP)—Formal announcement that the Americans and Russians have
joined in central Germany was expected today in a matter of hours, and there
were indications that the U.S. Ninth Army might he the chosen force
for the historic meeting with the Red army at or near
Berlin.
Associated Press Correspondent
Wes Gallagher, with the Ninth Army at Magdeburg, reported that the great
Russian break-through—which now has entered Berlin—explained why the Ninth Army
had been sitting on the Elbe river west of the German capital since April 11.
The Ninth Army had, .and still
has, the power to. Have marched-to -Berlin within! 10 days of its reaching the Elbe- Gallagher noted.-and
referred to the expected junction of the Ninth and the Russians in the Berlin
area.
Horror Camps
Black Names
Of History
LONDON, .April 21—AP—Belsen, Buchenwald, Breedonk and
Vaught are destined to be among the blackest of names in German history, for
they represent German concentration camps where thousands of young and old,
men, women and children, have been tortured and killed.
Part of their story is becoming
known now as Allied troops from the west sift the evidence left behind by the
Germans. And these were only four of the concentration camps—as differentiated
from prisoner of war camps. In the concentration camps the Germans held civilians
of their own and occupied
countries who were suspected or convicted
of "crimes" ranging from curfew violations to merely being considered
dangerous to the German state.
Breedonk is near Malines in
Belgium, it is relatively small, yet by the British army's official account 350
persons were executed there, and more than 1,000 at the national camp near
Brussels. There are no figures for the numbers who died of starvation or passed
through these camps. There are only two of 18 prisons or execution depots in
one small country
Bitterest
Fighting
Marks
Okinawa Gain
By The
Associated Press
Some of
the bitterest fighting of the Pacific war marked small American gains through
heavily defended Japanese positions on southern Okinawa, Flefet Adm. Chester
VV. Nimitz reported late Saturday. . • -
Meanwhile the American flag was
flung to the breeze over Ie island, 4,000 yards off Okinawa's west coast. ;Doughboys
planted the Stars and Stripes atop Mt. Legusugu after-overcoming furious
resistance. The tiny island, now under Yank
control, is being mopped up.
On southern Okinawa, high ground
in the hill 178 sector changed hands several times as the fortunes of battle
swung from side to side. The hardhitting Yank ground forces were heavily
supported by naval guns, Army and Marine artillery and carrier-based planes.
Japanese night air raiders hit two
central American-held airfields on central Okinawa but damage was minor.
The Marines on northern Okinawa
cleaned out enemy pockets and brought all of Motobu peninsula under their
control.
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