SAAR CAPITAL

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 135, 5 December 1944, Page 5

SAAR CAPITAL

Approach By Allies

NEW DRIVE BEGINS

'.' ■_■...■ ' LONDON, December 4. Troops and tanks of the American Third Army were tonight only six and a half miles from Saar^rucken, the capital of the Saar basin. American batteries posted on strategic heights are now shelling* Saarbrucken. A new drive towards Saarbrucken began this morning, when two infantry divisions and an armoured division of the Twelfth Corps struck across the German frontier before dawn. After advances of as much as two and a half miles they captured two German towns and were last known to be fighting in a third. \- A few miles to the north other Third Army' men have captured half of Saarlautern (Saarlouis).' Third Army men are now beyond the German frontier along a front of 25 miles".. For nearly half that distance they hold a continuous front along the west bank of the Saar River opposite Merzig.

A correspondentsays that the Maas opposite Venlo has now become a noman's land. /British and German guns are firing across the river, which , varies from 100 to 150 yards in , width. .;••■*■'. British troops have fcompletely wiped out the German bridgehead at Blerick, opposite-Venlo, and there is now not a single German under arms on the-west bank of the Maas from the . Aachen gap to the sea. British troops arid tanks which began'a local attack on Blerick early yesterday morning had driven right through the town to the west bank of the river by this .morning. There were then a certain number of Germans still sniping from ' houses .and cellars, but these have

since been eliminated and Blerick is now .completely in our. hands. The town, which has a population of about 10,000, is a suburb of Venlo, and is con r nected ■with it by a bridge across the Maas. The bridge was blown up by the Germans some time ago. In the Arnhem area, where FieldMarshal Montgomery's forces hold a .salient between the Maas and the

Waal, rivers, -the' Germans say they ,have bjown up some dams and have forced our troops to pull back to some high ground because of the flood waters. Correspondents say that if this report is true it affects the Germans just as much as ourselves because German troops still hold a considerable part of the territory between the two rivers.' On the Ninth Army front, American troops now hold a continuous stretch of seven miles along the west bank of the Roer River, but no attempt has yet Pu T ml de to cross il Just ~ south of the Ninth Army, men of the American inrst Army have again pushed slightly forward into the German defences covering the approaches to Julich At the southern end of the front troops of the Seventh Army have liberated a town eight miles from Col™?&i the ■headquarters of the enemy's 'ffipy diminishing Alsace bridgeSfn? eMh, F! rst Army forces, thrusting north to meet the Americans, also, made fresh gains tod?}

GERMAN SCORCHED-EARTH POLICY 1 . LONDON, December 4 Evidence, tnat the Germans fully intend to apply, the scorched-earth S&r 3USt ?S ™thlessly their ?wn country as in Alsace is contained in a

recently-captured enemy document, says a "Daily Telegraph" correspondent at Strasbourg. It orders.the complete demolition of all buildings affording accommodation for enemy troops in what it calls "the present displacing movement." 0 The order says: "All means must ba employed to ensure that no house and no shack is left in a usable condition. The troops must not depend on the engineers, but must do a large share of the demolitions themselves by burning houses." , i

LEAVE FOR BRITISH TROOPS Bee. 10 a.m. LONDON, Dec, 4. British troops, serving on the Western Front will be granted seven days'leave in the United Kingdom, reports the Exchange Telegraph agency correspondent in Holland. The first leave period begins on January 1. The men will be selected by ballot.