FIGHTING WEST OF BELFORT

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24366, 19 September 1944, Page 5

FIGHTING WEST OF BELFORT

ALLIES 20 MILES AWAY (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, Sept, 17. I "Germans taken prisoner on Sunday 1 near the important town of Lure, 20 miles west of the Belfort Gap, say that the Germans defending the nass have been ordered to hold on to the last man," reported Reuter's correspondent with the United States 7th Army on Sunday. "Allied troops are now 20 miles from the gap at their closest point. Lieu-tenant-General Patch's forward elements are moving through muddy, rain-bogged country, with hills blanketed by cloud, and are encountering dogged resistance east of Lure. German artillery was shelling Lure this afternoon. "German pockets which are standing and fighting are enabling other Germans to place mines and create roadblocks. The Germans* strongest resistance at present runs in an arc from near Lure south to the Swiss border, where the French in the, last few days have made slight progress in the Jura ridges. "The Germans seem less concerned with the region north-west of Belfort, where Allied spearheads are fighting northward from Luxeuil, encountering little opposition in their drive towards the Vosges mountains." FRANCE AND THE ALLIES (Rec. 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 17. The Paris newspaper "France Libre," in a leading article on the Quebec statement, said: "Things must be settled once for all —are we not our allies' ally? We do not rejoice in the least at being told that we shall be consulted in the same way as any second or third-rate nation. France is a great Power and she will talk as a great Power, on the same footing as the others, or she will- remain silent." Suspension of Correspondents.—The term of suspension for the six war correspondents who broadcast from Pans on August 25 without submitting their stories for censorship has been reduced from 60 to 30 days. Extenuating circumstances have been taken into account, including the street fighting, which prevented movement to the censorship officers, and the fact that thr-rc was no breach of security in the stories sent-London, September 17.