FANATICAL STAND ON REICH SOIL

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

FANATICAL STAND ON REICH SOIL

Enemy Still Strong

RAIN BECOMING A BIG FACTOR

(By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Received September 28, 0.15 p.m.) , LONDON, September 28.

The Allied armies are facing the prospect of a winter campaign before Germany is finally crushed,” states a correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain with the United States First Amy. The Germans are holding on desperately along the frontiers of the Reich, and the weather is steadily worsening. The Germans, responding to Hitlerls call to fight to the last man, are making a fanatical stand on their own soil as the rain turns the fields into quagmires and leaves the troops cold and wet. The German commanders on the Aachen area are passing out cards for their men to sign pledging that they will resist to the last. Henceforth there will be 16 or 17 days of rain every month, and heavy fogs will soon make observation difficult. Our supply lines are extended, and the bad weather will help the defenders.

“There is no evidence that the Germans are about to crack under the Allied pressure.” The Arnhem withdrawal is a strategic setback, says the military correspondent of the “Daily Express.” “The Arnhem bridge is the back door into north-west Germany. We pushed it ajar, but the enemy's speedy reaction has slammed it again. Other methods will have to be tried. There may now be an irritatingly slow period while General Dempsey grinds down the opposition and makes a solid front in southern Holland to storm the north Rhine at more than one point.

“The airborne operation was a gamble to force a quick end to the war. It nearly succeeded, and it was always worth trying.” '