Gap In Siegfried Line

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 81, 3 October 1944, Page 5

Gap In Siegfried Line

AMERICANS POUR THROUGH

t>_ -- " (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) ™ I* 1' • «.*. A V LONDON, October 2. m Xhe American First Army has launched a full-scale attack against the SiegIned Line in the Aachen area. Early reports state that bombing and shelling have torn a huge gap in the German defences and that Allied troops are pouring through. m / - - The correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain at First Army headquarters, in a message lodged about five hours after the attack began, said that the Americans gained two miles on- a front of six miles north of Aachen. He describes the attack as "one of the\ greatest air and land assaults of the European campaign," and adds, "The mighty attack ended the stalemate of almost two weeks in which the Americans, after piercing the Siegfried Line in three places, had beaten off numerous strong enemy counter-attacks while building up supplies for another drive. People in scores of villages in France, Belgium, and Holland, and also on the German frontier clustered to watch a vast air armada pass over and dump bombs on the r biegfned Line. The ground shook for miles around to the thudding of bombs, supplemented by one of the most concentrated barrages ever fired from massed American guns. Reports from the front line said that the results of the bombing vWere excellent." fe

Hundreds of medium bombers and fighter-bombers dropped tons Gf high-explosive bombs from grey, cloudy skies on German pillboxes and gunposts near Aachen which the Germans are still holding strongly. American troops went in the moment the last plane had left. . * ■

A correspondent of the Columbia Broadcasting System says that the artillery barrage -was directed against German anti-aircraft batteries in the Aachen area and that then over 400 Tactical bombers struck for an hour and a half against a comparatively small section of the Siegfried Line. "As far as we could see,'' he says, " the enemy I d, not Put UP any fighters. Our fighter-bombers went in after the bombers to crush what enemy resistance remained; Then infantry began to pour into the gap." . . ~ ■

• Mosquitoes of the Tactical Air Force carried out non-stop attacks during the night against German -troops and supplies moving from Germany to the battle area in Holland, says Reuteir's correspondent with the Tactical Air Force. ;Tne attacks were concentrated in.the arfek" between Arnhem and tfaer§g& an& as far east as OsnabrucU. ; iMbsquitoes operating in the coastal'region strafed all kinds of Lmovem.en.t- around the Dutch islands ariid sank 174 barges and*tu|s I near Walcheren Island. s The:Jnfantryl and tanks of the Ameri--^^Ytfirst.Atmy drove into the Sieg- - ' MeS^ine for two miles on a sector ..wjbetweeh Aachen and Geilenkirchen, si- states the correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain.. • It was officially reported at 5 p.m. today that the Americans, following up the intensive air bombardment and the artillery barrage, had -smashed 400 yards beyond the railway between Aachen and Geilenkirchen. They came %£ under heavy small-arms. fir.c, and forded the Wurms River, a small tri»»f rL ff -the + Meuse, running north and south in this area. a A s?# o|Scer said that the Americans wv, SiLladvan^ ngslowly and meeting with heavy resistance from enemy pill? boxes and mortars. The Allied artilS^forl^ Whl ch »receded the attack .lasted for four hours. The advancing Americans found that the avalanche of ?«f? lS«,! n£ b0^ s to SMne Places had ISkSggg?*™ of ***»• 4ead According to Brussels radio the tfonior^iffi :* ~ ■them into the Siegfried Lin? at a g»J q «orth of Aachen"Where th?de- , fences narrow into one line, istow tn^ er tth^ aftemoair Sf ud: "it felS b s eali? n n^ ntr, aig §2