CRITICAL STAGE

Evening Star, Issue 25301, 9 October 1944, Page 5

CRITICAL STAGE

CANAL GROSSIKG REDUCED ENEMY CONVERTING AREA INTO " SMALLER ARNHEM " (Rec. 1 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 8. Pressed back towards the Leopold Canal under raking fire from German artillery, mortars, and machine guns, the Canadian bridgehead has again shrunk in bitter fighting, says Reuter's correspondent with the Canadian First Army. The Canadians now hold a narrow strip '■ along three miles of the canal's northern bank, with some gaps between units. The position of the bridgehead is approaching a critical stage. The ' Daily Express's ' correspondent saya the Germans switched more guns against the bridgehead, which they are trying to turn into a smaller Arnhem. The Germans fighting here belong to the Sixty-fourth Division, which was reorfanised after being drafted from Russia, heir fighting spirit has been heated up by the idea that they are defending the homeland, and a few who were taken prisoner said: "We are not Nazis, but we love pur Fatherland." The country over which the Canadians are fighting is wet, uncomfortable, and dangerous. Beyond the canal banks are numerous dykes, where lots of German machine guns are waiting. THE ADVANCE FROM ANTWERP. The British United Press correspondent with the Second Army says opposition up the road from Antwerp has been sporadic. The Germans attempted to form occasional road blocks with tanks, but retired when the Canadians applied pressure. The Germans yesterday tried to threaten the flank of this advance by attacking from the woods

on the Dutch frontiers, but they onjy succeeded in diverting the Canadians for a few hours while the woods were mopped up. Meanwhile there is no indication that the enemy is moving either into or out of the islands off the coast, and it is be'ieved he has committed the garrisons there to another suicide fight. Allied air forces are standing by ready to turn the Scheldt Estuary' into a death trap for any German escape attempt.