News for this day was all about the War front; both the Eastern Front and the Western front.
Impending spring weather in western Europe might delay a final German military collapse, analysts were pointing out. It was hardly more than days before spring thaws must be reckoned with by both the Russians and the allies Spring floods particularly in Poland across which run for hundreds of miles vital Russian supply lines offer great transportation problems to be overcome if that two-front victory drive was to go through without pause. There are intimations from Moscow that the pause in the main Russian drive on Berlin at the Oder-Neisse line has been due in part to bringing up supplies and equipment across Poland on a scale to meet that spring danger. There has been practically no change noted on the Oder front faced by White Russian armies for a month or more. Other military considerations no doubt led to that pause but the question of massing stores equipment and reserves well forward while the roads in Poland – were still frost hardened sufficiently to bear the traffic was of first importance.
American hopes outran their armies again last week—and once more the folks at home seemed to be overrating the slashing gains of the troops in the field. Again we appeared to be confident that preliminary victories were decisive triumphs. The preliminary victories were magnificent achievements however as Eisenhower’s men trapped portions of the fleeing garrison of the shattered west wall cut them to shreds and chased the remnants all the way back to the Rhine at the edge of the Ruhr. But a series of big German armies seemed to be waiting on the other side of the river and they looked like a pretty tough obstacle to military men with their feet still on the ground. They were beginning to expect nazi counterattacks.
Meanwhile from the Pacific, JAPAN itself has become, to all practical purposes, a battleground of the Pacific War. Actual physical invasion of the main islands of the archipelago is still in the future, but Tokyo and other important centers are being subjected to devastating air bombardment. American Marines are firmly established on Iwo Jima. a major inner defense of the Japanese islands, and essentially a part of the enemy homeland. The American fleet, with its powerful carrier task force, appears to have tight control of the Pacific up to the very shores of Japan.
Entirely missing from the battle has been Japan’s fleet. Meager air opposition, even to raids on Tokyo, indicated enemy air power was helpless in the face of heavy odds.
And that’s a little of what went on, this March 3, 1945 as presented by CBS World News Today.
