March 10, 1945; INCENDAIRY BOMBS HIT TOKYO:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, MARCH 10, 1945:

WAR AT GLANCE

March 10, 1945

THE WESTERN FRONT:

First great battle east of Rhine took shape; Americans threw back tank supported

counterattack as vast stream of men and supplies poured over bridge; more Germans' raced for area; Wesel pocket in north whittled further; Third army hacked at trapped Germans in Eifel pocket after juncture with First.

THE RUSSIAN FRONT:

Germans reported Red army consolidating Oder bridgehead for assault on Berlin, fighting in Kuestren; Moscow said great attack approached Stettin on 30-mile arc, Danzig menaced.

THE PACIFIC FRONT:

Vast fires burned in Tokyo, fires reported ill emperor's palace area after mightiest

B-29 raid yesterday, marines on Iwo reached northeast beaches, splitting enemy forces, enemy reported Mindanao in Philippines invaded; Americans drove forward east of Manila; British in Burma captured Mandalay hill

ST. JOSEPH, MICH., SATURDAY, MARCH 10, 1945.

YANKS REPULSE

FIRST ATTACK

ON BRIDGEHEAD

Steadily Bolster Position

On East Bank of Rhine;

Near Coblenz

BULLETIN

LONDON, March 10 (AP) —

The Berlin radio reported today American troops were storming the Rhine in small craft south of Honnef, at the northern end of the newly-won Rr.augen bridgehead.

PARIS, March 10 (AP).—

Tank supported German infantry struck at the 50-square-mile American bridgehead over the Rhine at Reraagen today, but were stopped cold more

sped over thousands of the bridge doughboys in a race against Nazi columns moving up for battle.

Farther upstream, TJ. S. Third. Army tanks smashed to within two miles of Coblenz. Some 20,000 Nazis were trapped northwest of that Rhine city by the juncture of the First and Third Armies.

A front dispatch said several hundred Germans buttressed by armor were halted in a thrust against the Rhine bridgehead, five miles deep and ten or more wide.

Bolster Bridgehead

The buildup of the First Army's wedge continued overnight with, hundreds of tons of supplies hurried across the shell-threatened Ludendorf  bridge along with thousands more troops.

German convoys, desperately using headlights in night travel, converged on the bridgehead, and a major, perhaps decisive, battle impended.

GREATEST RAID

BY SUPERFORTS

ENGULFS TOKYO

Fires Spread To Imperial

Palace, 300 Planes In

Record Armada

21ST BOMBER COMMAND,

Guam, March 10 (AP)—

A "hellish sea of fire, touched off  by the greatest raid ever made by Superfortresses, engulfed the heart of Tokyo today and eddied up to the Imperial

palace grounds.

It looked like the whole damn town was burning" said one airman returning this morning from the fiist mass night-time raid on the enemy capital. More than 300 B-29s poured thousands of incendiaries on the city causing "50 times more damage" than the record Feb. 25 raid which devastated 240 city blocks, said Brig.

Gen. Thomas S. Power.

Sea of Flames

"The area below me was literally a sea of flame," Power reported after two hours over Tokyo "It was the greatest show on earth."

A Japanese communique asserted fires broke out at the Imperial palace but were put out before 3 a. m.

Previously Tokyo radio said flames reached the emperor's stables. The communique claimed all fires were under control by 8 a. m.

WAR AT GLANCE

March 10, 1945

THE WESTERN FRONT:

First great battle east of Rhine took shape; Americans threw back tank supported

counterattack as vast stream of men and supplies poured over bridge; more Germans' raced for area; Wesel pocket in north whittled further; Third army hacked at trapped Germans in Eifel pocket after juncture with First.

THE RUSSIAN FRONT:

Germans reported Red army consolidating Oder bridgehead for assault on Berlin, fighting in Kuestren; Moscow said great attack approached Stettin on 30-mile arc, Danzig menaced.

THE PACIFIC FRONT:

Vast fires burned in Tokyo, fires reported ill emperor's palace area after mightiest

B-29 raid yesterday, marines on Iwo reached northeast beaches, splitting enemy forces, enemy reported Mindanao in Philippines invaded; Americans drove forward east of Manila; British in Burma captured Mandalay hill.

March 9, 1945; AMERICANS LAND ON MINDANAO:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, MARCH 9, 1945:

RACINE, WIS., FRIDAY AFTERNOON, MARCH 9, 1945.

Daring Troops

Capture Bridge

At Remagen

PARIS. —(AP)—

The American First army steadily enlarged its Remagen bridgehead in inner Germany today to an east bank wedge at least five miles deep and 10 wide..

Daring armored infantrymen of the Ninth armored division captured the double-tracked Ludendorf  railroad bridge at Remagen and swiftly raced along its 1,200-feet length into the steep cliffs of Erpel, 276 miles southwest of Berlin and 30 southeast of Cologne.

Tanks quickly followed the foot troops, aware of the danger that the Germans at any second might blow up the structure. The Shermans reached the span at 3:50

p. m. Wednesday, it is possible to disclose for the first time tonight.

Rednce Wesel Pocket. Between the Remagen bridgehead and shell-rocked Coblenz, .

German resistance collapsed suddenly in the Eifel mountains trap and the lost nazi divisions raced toward the Rhine. British to the north captured Xanten and steadily

reduced the Wesel pocket.

The U. S. Third army won domination of the Rhine north of Coblenz tonight by capturing the ferry terminal of Andernach and the town of Brolil,

Russians Reported

Fighting in Kuestrin

By RICHARD KASISCHKE.

LONDON — (AP) —

The troops of Marshal Gregory Zhukov in their offensive toward Berlin have fought into Kuestrin a second time, the Germans reported today, and a bitter battle is raging in the ancient streets of the Oder river fortress.

Russian tanks and infantry attacked 17 times from the northwestern part of the city—which the Germans said yesterday had been bypassed on the north and

south by the Russians who had driven across the Oder to within 25 miles of Berlin—but were finally driven back to the suburbs, a German broadcast announced.

Kuestrin, 39 miles east of Berlin, was first reported penetrated about a month ago, before the momentum of Zhukov's drive from Warsaw was spent.

Mass for Lake Crossing

The Russians, however, had not yet confirmed officially the crossing of the Oder—an announcement which would signal that the Allies in the east as well as in the west have joined battle with the Nazis in the heart of Germany.

To the north the Russians pushed forward from an arc eight miles southeast, east and northeast of Berlin's Baltic port of Stettin and rushed up boats and landing craft for an assault across the Dammscher lake which fronts Stettin on the east.

Americans Land

On Mindanao,

Tokyo Reports

By JAMES HUTCHESON

MANILA. — (AP) —

Americans have landed on Mindanao, second | largest of the Philippines, said an

unconfirmed Tokyo radio broadcast heard in London today. An earlier report by Tokyo said U. S. warships were shelling Zamboanga. on the southwestern tip of Mindanao but “no landings had been made up to Thursday night."

A Tokyo broadcast, heard in London by the Associated Press, gave this "flash":

"Enemy trying to land at Zamboanga at Mindanao since March 8."

It added: "The landing was preceded by a heavy bombardment. On March 8 in the morning 30 enemy ships appeared from the west. Soon afterward three cruisers, four battleships, 20 other ships and 20 landing boats were lying off

Zamboanga.

Indians Assault

Mandalay Hill

CALCUTTA — (U.P) —

Fierce hand-to-hand encounters raged today on Mandalay hill, inside Burma's historic city as the Japanese fought savagely in attempts to stem envelopment by converging Indian troops.

The 800-foot hill, overlooking Fort Dufferin, seat of ancient Burma kings, virtually controls the entire northern section of Mandalay.

(The British radio said that according to unofficial reports British troops had penetrated the old walls surrounding Fort Dufferin.

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..