FLOOD WARFARE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 135, 5 December 1944, Page 6

FLOOD WARFARE

SOUTH OF ARNHEM

BITTER FIGHT BY GERMANS / AGAINST WATER (By .Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright Re£- 1.50 p.m. LONDON, Dec < south of Arnhem - wer breached on the night of December : ■presumably by. German sappers at to force a withdrawal by th ~ Canadian troops holding the area be ■Jween Arnhem and Nijmegen, state •the...correspondent of the Associate •Press of Grest : Britain in Holland, is .a, delayed dispatch. He adds that th '.ram-swollen waters of the lower Rhin -spread tnrough the breaches. yesterda-\ [•threatening to engulf the '"island" be .?tween the Rhine and its tributary, th jWaal. Our, troops south of the'Waa iand,east of this area are not affecte. by the flooding. .-The. German news agency claims •tonight that the position of the Britisi • troops north of Nijmegen had becom •precarious, following the blowing uj •of a big -dam south-west of Arnhem ;The railway embankment from Nijiriegen to Arnhem can only bs used at present as a supply route, and is being subjected to heavy fire. The German war reporter, Guniher Menniger, said tonight:- "Floods are : the masters of the situation in Holland, following almost ceaseless rain for a fortnight, the Maas, the Scheldt, and ; the-.Waal, the lower Rhine, and most of the numerous canals have risen far ibeyond normal. Our grenadiers are fighting a bitter battle against the water, which has caused trenches and earthworks to collapse." . NOT SO FORMIDABLE. Men of one of Britain's finest regijnents today-hold Blerick, the suburb of Venlo on the west bank of the Maas, stated Reiser's correspondent outside Venlq. British troops tonight were cleaning up the last Germans in barns . and ruined houses in . Blerick. The ■whole operation of wiping out what rwas' expected to be a formidable ibridgehead at Venlo took less than 36 ;hours. , There is still some artillery, fire''from-woods inside Germany just across the Maas, but much less than was expected. ■ . ; American forces of the Ninth Army strengthened their grip on the section .of Julich west of the River Roer to;day and cleared up resistance in the •sports stadium, which is on the western side, says Reuters correspondent with the Ninth Army. The stadium had- been converted into a strongpoint which was designed to block our progress towards one of the finest poten,tial ; crossings over the Roer River. Our approaches to the, stadium were limited roy. the-fact that the surrounding low (ground was flooded by the rising jwaters of the-Roer. Our troops at .one point stood neck deep in water, .waiting to creep out into the German' positions. . The British United Press correspondent with the American Third Army .says that American engineers loaded fa captured German tractor with 7000 f pounds of dynamite with a time fuse, ;and sent it against the walls of a fort inear Strasbourg, causing a terrific exjplpsion. • It is. believed that few of •the garrison could haye survived.