MAJOR EFFORT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 147, 19 December 1944, Page 5

MAJOR EFFORT

German Push In West

SECURITY SILENCE

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) Kee. 10 a.m. ■• LONDON, December .18. It may be some time before details of the fighting- on the American front west of. Cologne are announced, as the Allied Supreme Command has imposed a "security silence" on all dispatches. The situation is entirely fluid. The front is in motion along a 30-mile stretch of the American First Army front, reaching southward from Monschau (40 miles south-west of Cologne), m This is undoubtedly a majov German effort. The Germans arcusing some of their best "units in the counter-offensive, and the situation is still fluid, said an American broadcaster with the First Army this afternoon.

The Panzer Division which is the spearhead of the main thrust is.a crack division which has served on half a dozen fronts. There is no hit-and-run character about this offensive. Once the infantry made the initial breach, the enemy moved in artillery. He means to consolidate and hold everything he takes, and withstand an offensive.

Captured German, parachutists revealed that they were trained and formed into special combat teams for this attack over four weeks ago.

An Associated Press correspondent says the Americans are. locked in battle against strong enemy forces south of Monschau. German armoured 'columns, strongly supported overnight by artillery and planes, have driven several miles into Belgium, making their strongest penetration in a drive along a front of seven miles which has bent back the American line in this sector.

An Exchange Telegraph correspondent says that the enemy continued to push forward at many points during the night and made substantial gains. At one-point 30 German tanks smashed across the border, followed by infantry-laden lorries, which'soon over-ran a number of towns on the Allied side of the border, says a BriJJ sn United. Press correspondent withi tne First Army. One of the first German successes was the recapture of the important Schneifel hill and forest region north-west of Prum. The correspondent says he saw rocket-firing planes flying low and seeking out Allied. ■ concentrations, artillery, and I lorries lined up along the roads. j "A NEW EXPERIENCE." •' Ten # German armoured vehicles rolled into one town, forcing the Americans, who were armed only with ■rifles, to pull out across the fields. - Ail American officer was sitting in a divisional advanced command post an another town when two German tanks rolled in. The officer said- "It was quite an experience having the J"#J? com, e to us. The--tanks got !?i m« a JIU^ dred,Ai rds of the command post, then both went up in ISedfhite." our-. tank-destroyers got.

nn +h^?Ofii at Aed pi;ess correspondent cw c Army front says that the ?nrt £o S *lau^ch^ d a new v weapon, and are bombarding rear areas clay g» The Luftwaffe is cont&S $&*i S Aheavy *night- attacks a^ng the Ninth Army front. a .During the night German planes bombed alid staled -at d Hni? a aS H German? and Holland. The Germans arp aUn using railway guns on m ° increaSne

H*vhfn9hr?ians are still advancing today m their counter-offenisve and thp situation is reported to be' Srely fluid, says Reuters correspondent at deS ew?thh^ dqT^s- SuSs to w^ lth- the Sltua*ion are in hand afthoulh 6 «,n ° CSUSe for undue aW, §oS g?,,nth? nf enemy gains at some points run into several miles ThX andCtth£r a"?w S 04the GerSan attars Mtll°- asss^ mmm