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First Army tanks and Allied infantry battled within six and a half miles of Cologne Wednesday night after throwing three bridgeheads across the Erft river. Only flat plains lay ahead to the great city on the Rhine. Wide Ninth Army swept through disordered German resistance imperiled the Ruhr administrative center of Duesseldorf already in Allied artillery range. Germans west of the Rhine “realized the jig was up and were withdrawing their artillery” a Ninth Army officer said at dusk. In the center Lieutenant General George Patton’s Third Army captured the military highway center of Bitburg — the “Bastogne of Germany” Third Army tanks were curling about ancient Trier in an encircling threat. The Germans retreated across the Rhine plain before the massed and growing might of the American First and Allied Ninth Armies in the biggest break-through since Normandy — a retreat which was virtually a rout.
President Roosevelt returned Wednesday from the Big Three meeting ’buoyant with hopes for an enduring peace and ready to report to congress and the nation. Not everything agreed upon at the already historic Yalta meeting would be disclosed immediately. Mr Roosevelt made known that some secret understandings were reached and that they necessarily must remain secret for a while although they probably would become apparent in time. Whether those understandings were in the military or political sphere or both was not indicated. As an aftermath of the conference-in the Crimea the chief executive had high hopes for a lasting peace and a worldwide reduction in armaments. In the weeks ahead he had an active program of travel and engagements to further those hopes. Back from a five-week 14000-mile journey to Russia by cruiser and plane Mr Roosevelt planned: A report in person to Congress and the country on the “Big Three” Conference at 9:30 am PWT. President Roosevelt will report to a joint assembly of the house and senate in the house chamber. It was planned to be broadcast via all networks. An appearance at a United Nations conference opening in San Francisco April 25. As official host Mr Roosevelt probably will welcome and address the delegates.
And Marines along a line bisecting Iwo Jima kept terrific pressure Wednesday on the Japanese in a supreme effort to crack a foe known to be short of water and believed to be husbanding ammunition. After noticeably slackening artillery and mortar fire Monday the Japanese loosed a heavy barrage Tuesday at Leathernecks straightening out their line with slight advances north up high ground blanketed by pillboxes and blockhouses. The Marine line manned by three divisions cut across the island’s center at the north end of the fighter airfield where the Nipponese still holding a fingertip grasp after a week of battling over that base. As the fight for the island entered its 10th day Japanese dug in on the higher northern half still displayed a marked power to resist although they have been shelled incessantly from the sea bombed from the air and pounded by artillery.
And that’s just a sample of what went on, this February 28, 1945 as reported by NBC’s News Of The World.
