MILE ADVANCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 90, 13 October 1944, Page 5

MILE ADVANCE

fii-Msh In Holland

ENEMY WITHDRAW FROM POCKET

;<By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) BeeCnooiL. ;' LONDON, October 12. , Behind a heavy artillery barrage, British infantry at noon today advanced one mile on a front of 2000 yards against the German positions west of the Maas Biver and entered, Overloon, says Reuters correspondent with the British forces at Nijmegen. Fifteen minutes before the infantry's zero hour, medium bombers attacked Venrai, a vital communications centre four miles south of Qverloon. r The British United Press correspondent with the British Second Army says that the British attack threatens to split the Germans in the salient west of the Maas between Nijmegen and the United States First Army.

. The British brought up flail tanks to clear a way through the mine carpet outside Overloon, and rocketfiring planes picked out targets ahead of the infantry. The Germans sent in reinforcements, including Tiger tanks, in an effort to block the road, and German infantry tonight were still holding out An a number of buildings.1 The air attack against Venrai, which was designed to tangle the German communications and destroy their supplies, was described' as highly- successful. Venrai is directly connected with Venlo, where the Germans have their main bridge across the Maas^ • The Germans have withdrawn the troops' who have been holding the pocket on the south bank of the Neder Rhine, reports Keuter's correspondent with the Twenty-first Army Group The British now hold all the southern bank of the Neder Rhine from a mile west of Arnhem to Opheusden, a distance of nearly 12 miles. German coastal gunners, fighting as infantry, have been thrown into the attack against the British and Canadian seaborne troops in the Scheldt pocket. The attack made no impressipn, and the Germans were driven off, a number being taken prisoner. The Allies are standing firm, and more reinforcements are being landed. Allied bombers destroyed the bridge ,at Arnhem which the First Airborne - Division fought to hold, says the British United Press. Reuters correspondent points out that the German withdrawal from the Neder;,Khine bridgehead does not mean that there are no pockets holding out between the Waal, and the Neder Rhine; New gains have been made in the Scheldt pocket beach-head, reports Reuters correspondent with the Canadian First Army. The Canadians today captured Biervliet. Kocket-nring Typhoons and bombcarrying Spitfires throughout yesterday, blasted the Germans in three villages in which the enemy was holding up the Canadians' advance in the Scheldt pocket. All three villages were practically obliterated. ' Before dusk the pilots reported that the roads were blocked and the buildings in a state in which defence' was virtually impossible and evacuation difficult. Other squadrons attacked Germans who were Impeding the Allies south-west of A.rnhem.-v One target was; a factory ;outh of- Wageningen, where there was m enemy concentration.