GAINS HELD

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 47, 24 February 1945, Page 8

GAINS HELD

New Allied Offensive

ENEMY SURPRISED

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) ' ReC'ri P'^ . LONDON, February 23. oa Amencan First and Ninth Armies launched an offensive ,-at 3.30 a.m. today across the Roer River east of Aachen, says Reuters -correspondent at SHAEF. The attack was launched after intense j artillery preparation, and an air bombardment which lasted for 45 [.minutes. The resistance at first was not heavy, but it is expected to increase.

; The Americans crossed in assault others. Working under stifling ioats and -amphibious craft by in- f A u™es- from the smoke-screens, the ■fo * u-j * i y Americans erected bridges for lantry bridges. A smoke screen was vehicles.

used because the moonlight was too bright. General Simpson's Ninth Army, which is under Field-Marshal Montgomery's command, achieved a tactical surprise, catching some of the enemy in bed, says the Exchange Tele.graph agency's correspondent at pF-ield-Marshal Montgomery's headquarters. The casualties were extremely; light during the crossing of ;the river, .which is usually 80 feet ;wide and now about 250 feet wide ;at some places. Four- hundred medium fighterIbombers and 900 fighter-bombers addled their weight to the tremendous .artillery barrage. A correspondent at SHAEF reports that the Allied progress so far is described as satisfactory. Under" a full moon 'and bright stars ducks and assault boats packed with American infantry swarmed across the flooded 'sloer, and by the first light the initial had been reached and the .gains firmly held. Other troops (Crossed on frail pontoon bridges. The jnain initial opposition came from which laid down fire against •the assault boats as they struggled the river, which was flowing ;at the rate of four knots. --Many; boats

were swept off their course, capsizing The bridgeheads are now being strengthened and linked up. Reuters correspondent ,at FieldMarshal Montgomery's headquarters says that the defences among which the Americans are now fighting have all been established since the fall of Aachen. This is the first known instance in history of warfare when a smoke screen has been used at night. The river itself had been prepared as part of the German defences, with a system of stakes, submerged wire, and floating mines which kept throwing the assault boats into the air. The Americans across the Roer face a stretch of defensive ditches nearly three miles deep at some points, built in a connected pattern like the trenches of the last war. Interlaced with the ditches are anti-tank traps, fortified towns, and some concrete pill-box^s, but nothing like the density of 1 -^ Siegfried Line. The German artillery fire was nut as heavy as was expected. Security forbids the disclosure of the towns and villages taken in the first phases of the attack, but Tteuter's correspondent at Field-Marshrti Montgomery's headquarters says: M saw the operational map this afternoon, and it looked: good." . '