SIEGFRIED GAINS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 29, 3 February 1945, Page 1 (Supplement)

SIEGFRIED GAINS

AMERICAN TROOPS i ■ ——— Enemy Aircraft Absent On Eastern Front British Official Wireless Rec. 5.30 p.m. RUGBY, Feb. 2. In the general advances of up to two miles to-day American troops again went on closing up to the Siegfried Line on their 30-miles front in the Northern Ardennes. Five miles south of Monschau U.S. Ninth Army infantry captured important, crossroads at the junction of the main roads to Germund and Schleiden after an advance of nearly a mile. This crossroads is seven miles west and south-west of Schleiden. Eight miles south-east of St. Vith United States Third Army infantry advanced over two miles into Germany to less than half a mile from the main Siegfried positions and captured Keckhuschied, nine miles west-south-west of Prum. Seven villages in this sector fell to-day. Resistance Stiffens General Hodges' troops are fighting in the Siegfried Line to-night on a wide front, according to the latest messages from correspondents with the United States First Army. Nehhof, a fortified village in the line, was taken by the Second Airborne! Division pushing through dragons' teeth and minefields and meeting opposition from alarm battalions in pillboxes within the line. Resistance generally has stiffened, but enemy artillery is still lacking. Advances of 400 to 500 yards were made to-day, the biggest advance being in the South Monschau Forest. Fighterbombers to-day attacked road and rail traffic moving eastwards. The absence of enemy aircraft lends support to the view that all available planes have been sent to the east to meet the Russian threat. J

Mr. Robert P. Patterson, actingSecretary of War, stated to-day, says a Washington message: "It is obvious that the Germans have yet to feel the full weight of another all-out Allied offensive in the West. "With short supply lines and an interior network of roads and railways, the Germans may be able to make a stand on the Oder, although even that ability is in doubt At the other side of the Reich they naturally will fight desperately to prevent an open breach of the West Wall. The terrain, weather and fortifications in that area present difficulties for us. Even the fall of Berlin might not end the war. No doubt the Hitler gangsters would like to fight to the last.