April 3, 1945; Nazis Trapped in Ruhr:

THISWAS REPORTED TODAY, APRIL 3, 1945:

ABILENE/TEXAS, TUESDAY MORNING, APRIL 3, 1945-TEN PAGES

Last-Ditch Defense

.of Vienna Ordered

LONDON, April 2.—(AP)—

Russian assault forces, .ripping 11miles today through shattered enemy defenses, smashed within two and a half miles of panic-stricken Bratislava, capital of the puppet Axis state of Slovakia, while Berlin reported Soviet tanks 20 miles south of Vienna.

As the Germans proclaimed a last-ditch defense of Vienna under command of Col. GeSepp Dietrich, commander Hitler’s  SS bodyguard, Mo cow's war bulletin was silent on the progress - of Soviet troops battering into Vienna southern defense wall.

Clamping a news blackout on the action, the Soviet high command said; however, that Red army forces were'' "continuing offensive engagements" west of the Neusiedl see (lake) where they last were oficially reported 22 miles below the Austrian capital.

Enemy broadcasts said that Marshal Feodor I. Tolbukhln's third Uk raine army had gained two miles and that other Soviet units had 'thrust 32 miles Inside Austria to Semmering Pass, one of five great Iran: Alpine passes in Europe. .

 Other reports said lant So- Tt tank: were battling in the streets of .Wiener Nenistadt, shell-raked Industrial center 21 miles south of Vienna. East of Vienna, Marshal Rodio that Malinovsky's second Ukrain army plunged unchecked through southern Slovakia along the northern bank of the Danube. Behind curtain of fire from self-propelle guns, Malinovsky's troops stormed into and captured Bischdorf two and a half miles east of Bratislava.

The puppet government had fled the city, It was reported. Malinovsky's troops were 27 miles east of Vienna, 'the 'Soviet communique disclosed.

11th Armored Makes

Deepest Penetration

PARIS, Tuesday, April 3.—(AP)—

American troops again crushed German attempts yesterday to break out .of the Ruhr, where 110,000 Nazis are trapped, as British and Canadian forces to the north smashed 15 miles inside Holland and sped within 68 miles of the German North sea coast, threatening to seal off another enemy group in the western Netherlands.

In the race toward Berlin, swift U. S. Ninth Army'columtft1' striking far beyond the encircled Ruhr,.were Hearing or might already have reached the Weser river near the Pied' Piper town of Hamelin, 155 miles from Berlin. A dispatch French Gen. Omar N. Bradlcy's 12th Army group headquarters said a total of 330,000 Germans had been captured in March, 150,000 of them by the Third Army and 90,000 by the First Army,'whose troops yesterday smashed Nail break-out attempts and 'counter-attacks in the Winterbetg-and Warburg areas.