March 4, 1945; Bridges Blown Up Over Rhine:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, MARCH 4, 1945:

RACINE, WIS., SUNDAY, MARCH 4, 1945

Elements of Two Allied Armies

Join to Form Solid River Front

PARIS. — (U.P) —

The Germans blew up the three great Rhine bridges at Dusseldorf Saturday in a desperate bid to block a crossing by three Allied armies storming up to the  river on a 75 - mile front.

A fourth Rhine bridge at Uerdingen, linking Krefeld with the Ruhr arsenal city of Duisburg, also was reported to have been wrecked in what appeared to be the last act of the battle for the Rhineland.

The nazis were writing off their entire front west of the Rhine, except for a beleaguered pocket around Cologne.

Elements of the American Ninth and Canadian First armies clinched the victory in the Rhine-Maas corridor north of Krefeld with a juncture in t h e village of Berendonk that closed a solid wall of Allied troops and armor against the Rhine.

Fall of 2 Forts

Clears Russian

Path to Baltic

LONDON.—(U.P)—

Marshal Konstantin K. Rokossovsky's red army Saturday captured the Pomeranian strongholds of Pollnow and Rummselburg in a drive which the Germans said had carried with in four miles of the Baltic.

Moscow broadcast an order of the day by Marshal Stalin announcing the capture of Pollnow, 23 miles from the Baltic and 20 miles southeast of Koeslin: and Rummelsburg, 37 miles from the Baltic and 24 miles northeast of

Neustettin. Clears Way to Baltic.

The fall of the two strong points cleared the way for Rokossovsky's White Russian army to push on to the Baltic and cut off the German troops to the

northeast. Nazi broadcasts said he already had cut the Baltic coastal railway and highway, the last land line of escape for the Germans in northeastern Pomerania and Danzig Free State.

Hospital Ship

Brings First

Woman to Iwo

Editor's Note: The following dispatch was written by the first woman to land on

bomb and shell scarred Iwo Jima and one of the first women war correspondents permitted in a Pacific combat zone:

By BARBARA FINCH

Distributed by United Press.

MOTOYAMA AIRFIELD NO. 1,

IWO JIMA—(U.P.)—

I was aboard the first hospital supply transport plane landing here Saturday

morning, the first American woman to step ashore on this pitted, black-sanded isle where thousands of gallant marines have fought and died to gain an essential foothold in Japan's "front yard .

Our's was strictly a mercy ship—carrying doctors, corpsmen, medical supplies and 2,000 pounds of mail—flying to the leathernecks who have been fighting our battle

for the past 11 days.

Get Warm Reception.

We also carried tents and shovels to set up a temporary clearing

hospital for wounded later to be evacuated by plane.

Our reception could not have been warmer from the Japanese entrenched on high ground beyond Motoyama airfield No. 1, although my first glimpse of Iwo was idyllic — a pastel-colored Japanese print dominated by the conventional volcano.

Then Nipponese’s manning deadly mortars got our range and lite rally shot us into the airstrip.

fortunately their aim was bad and our pilot, Cmdr. Clarence A. Keller, U. S., Wichita, Kans., commander of an air evacuation squadron, is one of the best. We

sat down smoothly on t h e strip and started to unload our cargo.

The major "cargo" aboard the "Peg-O-My Heart” were two doctors: Lt. Cmdr. John B. MacGregor, USN., Afton, Va., and Capt. B. S. Baker, USA, Camden, N. J.

Barred from Air Trip.

MacGregor, senior flight surgeon of a naval evacuation unit, will stay in Iwo to screen the wounded, selecting wounded marines who can make an air trip to Saipan' or G u am hospitals. Baker, an army flight surgeon, also will remain in Iwo.

March 3, 1945; Americans Cross Rhine at Two Points:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, MARCH 3, 1945:

  GALVESTON, TEXAS, SATURDAY, MARCH 3, 194

 Nazi Arsenal

Cities Taken ;

By Americans :

Trier Is Captured

in Great Offensive;

Germans Are Fleeing

Paris,. March 2. AP

The United State* Ninth Army smashed to the Rhine at two points today, engulfed all the arsenal cites in the Ruhr basin west of that formidable river, routed the German 15^th Army, and began shelling Dueseldorf in the greatest offensive in. American history.

It split the German defense and rent 'the mauled enemy in frantic retreat across the Rhine as the United States First Army fought to within four and a halt miles of Cologne and the United States Third Army captured the ancient fort  of  Trier, guarding the Moselle.

 River route to Coblene.

The Canadian First Army on the north knocked out two other strong points In a five-mile surge through the buckling lines, and was ten miles from a junction with the Ninth Army, threatening entrapment of thousands of Germans.

German broadcasts said that between the closing jaws of this nutcracker the British Second Army went over on the offensive, and broke across the Maas River in a

drive designed 'to pin down and destroy the German army west of the Rhine.

Russians Four Miles

From Baltic Coast in

Pomeranian Offensive

London. March S (Saturday). AP

The Germans announced last night that red army spearheads had rolled within four miles of the Balic Pomeranian coast, slashing the Berlin-Statin-Danzig; military superhighway near Koeslln and trapping scores of thousands of nail troops In a 9800-square-mile section of northeastern Pomerania, Polish "corridor," and Danzig.

The soviet high command did not immediately confirm this sensational development, telling only of the- capture of 30 villages on the western side of the Baltic salient. Moscow apparently was waiting until the narrow tank-tipped wedge

had been strengthened before announcing that Pomerania had been chopped In two and another great trap sprung on the reeling foe.

Marines' Gain on Iwo

About to Cut Enemy

Force Into Two Parts

United State. Fleet Headquarters

Guam, March 3 (Saturday).(AP)

 Maj. Gen. Graves B. Erskine's 3d Marine Division lunged into the rugged north end of Iwo Friday to within 600 yards of cutting the Japanese garrison in two and sealing off the point of greatest enemy resistance .

Driving 700-yard wedge and seizing a 362-foot hill, the leathernecks in the center of the marine line approached the cliff edge on the island's northeast coast.

The wedge threatened to trap Nipponese who have held Maj. Gen. Clifton B. Gates' 4th Marines, moving up the east aide, to allow gains for the past five days.

The incomplete count of enemy dead rose more than 2300 In four days 7127  by noon Friday.

Americans Land on

Island Near Manila

Manlla, March 3 (Saturday). AP

Men of MacArthur, making their 18th inland Invasion In the Phillipenes

The fifth in a little over  week have landed on Lubang Island, 36 miles southwest of Manila Bay's entrance and thus completed clearance of the shortest sea route through the Philippines from the United .States

March 2, 1945;MAC ARTHUR RETURNS TO CORREGIDOR:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, MARCH 2, 1945:

Kingsport, Tenn., Friday, March 2, 1945

Enters Duesseldorf

Suburbs; 3rd Army

Takes Ancient Trier

Paris—AP—

The American Ninth Army won a stand on the Rhine today and captured the western end of the Ruhr with its large cities of Krefeld and Neuss, the latter a suburb of Duesseldorf.

Germany's whole western front before the Rhine was collapsing. Far to the south, ancient Trier fell to the American Third Army which thus pried open the gate of the Moselle Valley leading to the middle Rhine cities of Coblenz, Mainz and Frankfurt.

Cologne, largest and most important of all cities in the Rhineland, was placed under artillery fire again while the American First Army fought less than five miles away on plains as flat as Kansas. Nearly 1,000 British heavy bombers spread new rubble in the metropolis, second only toBerlin as the most bombed city on j earth. 15 Miles of Bonn

The First also beat within 15 miles of Bonn and seven of Euskirchen, important Rhineland transit center.

BULLETINS

With Canadian and British Troops In Germany— Canadian armor and infantry pushed through German suicide squads for an advance of more than five miles in the northern Rhine plain today.

Neuss, Germany—AP—Five German infantry divisions have been destroyed by the 9th Army's drive to the Rhine and three armored divisions have been

severely mauled, it was estimated today.

The First, Ninth and Third Armies were waging the greatest all-American offensive in history and scoring the greatest victory since the Brittany breakthrough.

The -broken German Army was routed in sectors; segments had been trapped.

Mighty Bomber

Fleets Back

Allied Armies

London—AP—

Close to 2,500 heavy bombers from Italy and Britain, shattered German and Austrian, targets today with Cologne and Dresden, immediately ahead of the

American and Russian armies, as the chief targets.

For the first time since Jan. 14 the German Air Force came up in. strength to give violent battle on this 19th consecutive day of the giant Allied air offensive. At least

62 enemy planes were shot down in battles over Germany. Twenty more were destroyed on the ground.

The Germans lost 186 planes when they last gave important battle two months ago.

Smashes Cologne

The RAF smashed at Cologne with 750 to 1,000 planes in the sector directly ahead of the U. S. First Army, and 1,200 -Flying Fortresses and Liberators hit a series of targets in southeastern Germany, including Dresden "and Chemnitz, in. front of Russian armies in Silesia.

Other Fortress and Liberator formations from Italy with Mustang and Lightning escort, bombed targets in the Linz area of Austria.

Mac Returns To 'Rock';

Spotlight Shifts To West;

Yanks Continue lwo Gains

By The Associated Press

Gen. Douglas MacArthur returned today to Corregidor, from which he fled three years ago, as the B-29s and veteran American invasion forces shifted the Pacific war spotlight southwestward toward Japan's as forces of the 41st Division invaded Palawan at the southern tip of the Philippine Archipelago Wednesday and were in firm control today of its principal port and two airfields. Palawan points like an accusing finger toward Nipponese held Borneo, Sumatra and Singapore.

March 1, 1945;YANKS ENTER ANCIENT TRIER/COLOGNE:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, MARCH 1, 1945:

Los Cruces, New Mexico Thursday Afternoon March 1, 1945

Cheering Congress

Hears President's

Report from Yalta

Marines Hold All

But Point of Iwo

By LKH' ERICKSON

U. S. PACIFIC FLEET HEADQUARTERS,

Guam, March 1—UP)

All but the northern third of rocky little Iwo Jima was in American hands today as the marines, their special supplies parachuted from transport planes, fought to clear the vital central plateau.

Front dispatches said the third division devildogs already had crossed the plateau in places and were moving downhill for the first time since D-day, 11 days ago.

Third division Marines overran the main village of Motoyama, Just behind the captured central airfleld.

They reached n third airfield, Motoyama No. 3 which was under construction when the Americans landed.

The marines had artillery, naval runs and close air support as they drove ahead more than 500 yards all along the two-mile battle line against the toughest, cleverest defenses encountered anywhere In the Pacific.

Danzig Cut Off

From Homeland

In Soviet Rush

By RICHARD KASISCIIKE

LONDON, March 1 UP) —

Red army tank spearheads sweeping through a split-up German front have cut Danzig off from Germany by land, a Moscow dispatch said today, and the Germans said the Russians had crossed the Ihna river defense line east of Stettin.

Coastal Ralhvay Under Fire

Col. Gen. A. K. Sokolsky's artillery has the Danzig-Stettin coastal railway under fire in several sectors and there is no traffic moving from east to west," said .a Moscow dispatch from AP Correspondent Eddy Gilmore.

The German communique said Marshal Gregory Zhukov's first White Russian army forced the crossing of the Ihna. a river flowing in an east-west direction to

Stargard. a stronghold 19 miles east of Stettin, then turning north toward the Baltic.

Germans in Retreat.

Farther east, the Germans said Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky's second white Russian army forced the Germans into another retreat south of Bublitz, 22 miles from the coastal railway, whose capture the Russians announced lost night.

Patton's Troops

Enter Strategic

Center of Trier

By JAMES M. LONG

PARIS, March 1 (AP) —

Powerful American armies poured through the last defenses before besieged Cologne today and broke into ancient Trier, guardian fortress city of the Moselle valley on the route to Coblenz.

Reports many hours outdated placed first army tanks and infantry within five miles of Cologne, greatest communications center in the Rhineland and a city the size of Boston proper.

A least five bridgeheads had been thrown across the Erft river.

Spectacular New Gains" The American ninth army to the north was declared at Field Marshall Montgomery's headquarters be making "spectacular new gains at the edge of the industrial Ruhr region, driving the German toward the Rhine.

JAPS REPORT YANKS

INVADE NEW ISLAND

MANILA, March 1 (AP) –

American invasion of Palawan island, the occupation of which would go fast forward sealing off Japanese holdings in the southern Philippines from access to the south China sea, was reported today by Tokyo radio.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur made no reference to such an operation in his Thursday communique which announced virtual destruction of the trapped enemy garrison of 6 000 on Corregidor island in Manila bay.

The enemy radio said that a regiment of Yanks—possibly  6,000 men—landed at 11 a.m. yesterday on Palawan, 250 miles southwest of Manila. The unconfirmed report told of a "violent battle" in progress.

If substantiated, Palawan would be the 16th island invaded by MacArthur's forces in the Philippines.

Hatch Flier, Caught in Nip Searchlight,

Tells How Bombs Blacked Out Blinker

ARMY AIR FORCES, Pacific

Ocean Areas, Feb. 10 (Delayed)—-

How the 7th AAF Liberator, Tarfu caught in the beam of a Jap searchlight high over Iwo Jima, dropped bombs which blacked out the light, was told by Sergeant Shelby Amos, Jr., Hatch, New Mexico, assistant engineer-left waist gunner of the

bomber.

'It occurred on .the 14th mission, a night 'snooper' raid on Iwo  Jima," declared Sgt. Amos. "The target was an airplane dispersal area. As we went on the bomb run the Japs spotted us and turned on six searchlights. "One was plenty accurate. Even though we were flying above 10- 000 feet, it hung right on our tail. The tail gunner had so much light he could have read a newspaper.