Thursday, April 4, 2013

April 4, 1945; Allies Pour Through German Lines, From North Sea:






MOBERLY, MISSOURI WED., APRIL 4, 1945
Allied Armies Pour Through
German Lines 28 Miles From
North Sea in Holland Drive

3rd Army Rolls Into Heart of Reich
140 Miles from Berlin; French Take
Karlsruhe; 7th Flanks Black Forest
U. S. THIRD ARMY, Germany,
April 4. (AP)
Kassel fell late today, depriving the Germans of one-of their great plane and tank manufacturing, centers, Suhl, 22 miles south of Gotha,- also was cleared. The Fourth armored division also cleaned out Gotha.
By JAMES M. LONG
PARIS, April 4. (AP)—Allied armies reached Weser and Ems rivers today, pouring through bedraggled German lines within 48 miles of the North Sea and 38 of the Great Prussian stronghold of Hannover.
In the center, the Third Army burst out into the rolling Thuringian plain, in the heart of Germany and the battleground of middle Europe, 140 miles from Berlin and 58 from Czechoslovakia.
The French First Army captured Karlsruhe, capital of Baden and a major Industrial and traffic center of 189,000 six miles east of the Rhine. It was heavily fortified and once a pivot of the Siegfried line.
The American Seventh-Army, flanking the Black Forest, fought to within 34 miles of Nuernberg and into the heart of Querzburg, Bavarian capital of lower Franconia.


Swift Twin Yank Drives Move
On Naha, Capital of Okinawa
Report First Jap Resistance Noted on South
End of Isle; Observe Enemy Defenses There
By MURLIN SPENCER
"GUAM, April 4 (AP) —
Twin American drives moved steadily southward toward Naha, capital of Okinawa today, and met possibly the first major resistance by the Japanese defenders since the Yanks landed four days ago. Vern Haugland, Associated Press War Correspondent aboard Admiral Turner's Flagship off Okinawa, said air observers reported occasional bursts of Japanese fire as well as signs of an elaborate trench system bustling with activity across the southern end of the island near Naha.
He wrote the possible defense line ran north of Machinato airstrip, five miles north of Naha and Tonabaru strip, six miles east of the capital.
Although the Yanks believe the Japanese fight still is to be faced, Lieut. Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr., commander of the 10th Army, said "the crucial
period of landing men and supplies is over. Even without opposition an operation this complicated could have broken down."
Another Associated Press correspondent, James Lindsley, in the field on Okinawa with the Marine Third amphibious corps, quoted Maj. Gen. Roy S. Geiger,
Leatherneck commander, as saying the Okinawa operation developed so rapidly that a complete change of plans had to be
made. ; "We are out of the woods, now," the general said.

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