WEST HOLLAND

Dominion, Volume 38, Issue 4, 29 September 1944, Page 5

WEST HOLLAND

Signs Of Withdrawal By Germans (By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.! (Received September 28, 7 p.m.) LONDON, September 27. “The Germans appear to be withdrawing from the area north of the AntwerpTurnhout Canal north-east of Antwerp,” says Renter's correspondent with the First Canadian Army. “Our patrols last night drove three miles northward without encountering serious opposition.”

“More than 100,000 Germans in western Holland are trying to organize a mass retreat.” says Reuter’s correspondent at Nijmegen. “They are attempting to withdraw ' northward and then eastward through the 25-mile gap between Arnhem and the Zuider Zee. A thick screen of British armour and infantry and American airborne forces bars the other west-to-east escape exit.” Another correspondent (quoted by British Official Wireless) says the Germans are moving men and material north between Arnhem and Apeldoorn. _To cover them they are forcing civilians to evacuate and mingle with their transports along the roads in order to hinder bombing by our rocket Typhoons. Civilians carrying white flags are forced to walk or ride between the enemy transports. .North-east of Veche! the Allies have captured Nistelrode. Slow advances are also occurring north-east of Nijmegen in au attempt to widen the points of the salient.” Steady Strengthening. “The battle of Holland has lost its cut-and-thrust character and is now developing into steady consolidation and strengthening of the salient toward the Rhine,” says the British United Press correspondent with the British Second Army. The panzer brigade which previously tried to cut across the salient took a heavy knock, and three-quarters of its tanks are unusable. It is officially stated that the Germans apparently have given up the idea of attempting to cut off the salient, and have resigned themselves to defending the line of the Maas, to which British troops are continuing to mdveThe Germans are also still reinforcing at Arnhem. EAST OF7ARNHEM New British Push Toward River LONDON, September 28. Today’s communique reports hardfought Allied gains north of Nijmegen, evidently toward the northern Rhine, just east of Arnhem. It also, reports a broadening of the Allied salient. The Canadians have deepened the Turnhout Canal bridgehead. Everywhere else there has been only patrol activity on both sides, except in the Luneville area, where a German counter-attack was repulsed with heavy loss to the enemy.