COUNTER-ATTACKS IN SIEGFRIED LINE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 68, 18 September 1944, Page 6

COUNTER-ATTACKS IN SIEGFRIED LINE

<By Teiograpii—Press Association—Copyright.) Kec. 2 p.m. LONDON, Sept. 17. ■The Germans are strongly counterattacking: the American-held section of tne Siegfried Line in the Stolberg area, five miles south-east of--Aachen, states a British United Press cox-res-pondent in a dispatch timed 9 o'clock tonight. "In a desperate attempt to save their West Wall," he says, -the Germans ; have thrown in crack reserve divi- ' sions, strongly supported by the Luftwaffe. Thirty German fighter-bomb-ers* simultaneously attacked-.our posi- , tions today, when the Germans coun-ter-attacked all day. Despite ■ the ■ enemy pressure, our positions are unaltered. The German High Command , apparently is using all its available ' strength in the hope of sealing off this vital breach. . "The Americans, who have- been !' awaiting a possible German counter- ■ attack ever since they established themselves in'the Siegfried Line, are manning positions in the line against ;.the Germans with artillery and antitank guns and also with multi-bar-relled weapons." The First Army troops who fought their way across the Meuse at Maastricht, are now encountering hardfighting paratroopers and also a number of German Home Guard battalions, all of which are offering strong Meanwhile, a small army of German civilians and conscripts are digging-, for all they are worth between the Rhine, and the Siegfried Line. ESCAUT CANAL ATTACK. ' While the Allied airborne forces were dropping into Holland, the British Second Army today launched an attack into Holland from the bridgehead over the Escaut Canal, states the Exchange Telegraph agency's correspondent with the British Second Army. Reuters correspondent, in a later dispatch, reported that the British Smashed out from the 'Beerengeh bridgehead and advanced two miles into Holland, and added: "The operation is going entirely according to.plan, under perfect weather conditions." It has been impossible in the last few days to hide the fact that some major attack was pending. Reinforcements of men and tanks have been pouring through Brussels in a continuous stream: The Exchange Telegraph agency says mat rocket-firing Typhoons and fighterbombers smashed down on the German defences as British tanks went speeding into Holland, with carrier-borne infantry following up, ready to deal with German strong-points. A heavy' Allied artillery barrage preceded the attack. 'The rate of fire was slow at the beginning, but quickened up in the last 15 minutes, blotting out the countryside with a curtain, of smoke and dust as (tanks.moved in., A strong force of Bomber Command Lancasters, in ' daylight this evening, dropped .nearly 700 -tons of bombs in a concentrated attack on important gun positions of the German garrison on island, at the mouth of the Scheldt: The weather, was clear and the tar-get was visually identified. GOOD RESULTS IN SOUTH. t? 1! Junction.of the United States and Seventh Armies, whereby • many Germans in central France are "" ■•>™ i i, thl Belfort gap escape route, has already produced excellent -. f^Sfe^gS^S. 811.^^ radi0 ■"The German, General Elster surrendered at Beaugency, south-west of Orleans, handing over his pistol as a token of .surrender of his 20 000 Stffif uSEV icV-'' They surrendered "Without a shot being fired." The broadcaster interviewed an American lieutenant, \vho said-- "We were operating 50 miles south of Loire f£T' nnd Earned from the French th^t a German column wished to surrender to the Americans. I told oiv> Belgian and one British officer who were working with us, both of whom speak German, to visit the German general and tell him he could .surrender unconditionally or take the consequences. I requested air support to ' £ome immediately, and Wanged that the Allied airmen should strafe the merman column if it signalled that surrender was not in progress.' General Elster did not wish to surrender to a lieutenant, so I arranged for him to meet my general, to whom he surrender unconditionally." "The Germans who were taken prisoner .today in the vicinity of the imV°v}? ntJ>™n °f'Lure,. 20. miles west of the Belfort gap, state that the Germans defending the pass have been ordered to hold,on to the last man " 7? y-S + ? c olel'' s correspondent with the . United States Seventh Army. "Allied • H 0(?P S ai; e n0w.20 miles from the gap at the closest point. General Patch's lorward elements, moving through ?•» ,£* r, ain-bogged country with the hills blanketed by cloud, are encountering dogged resistance east of Lure Orerman artillery was shelling Lure this .afternoon. German pockets which are standing and fighting are enabling -other Germans to place mines and create road blocks. • The Germans' strongest resistance at present runs in an arc from the vicinity of Lure south to the Swiss border, where the French an the last few days have made slight progress m the Jura Ridges. The Germans seems to be.less concerned with the region north-west of Belfort, where the Allied spearheads fighting northward from Luxeuil are encountering *^ tle _ opposition in their drive towards the Vosges Mountains."