GERMANY INVADED

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 September 1944, Page 5

GERMANY INVADED

U.S.A. ARMOURED THRUSTS BRITISH PROGRESS IN HOLLAND SURRENDER OF LE HAVRE

LONDON, Sept. ,12. To-day’s communique from Supreme Headquarters confirms that the American Ist Army’s advance into Germany from Luxembourg, in the area of Trier (Treves), has been made in force. Spearheads of this advance are in the area north-west of Trier and just beyond the Moselle. Earlier reports said that the Americans had penetrated five- miles into Germany. It was probable that they were in contact with the outer defences of the Siegfried Line. The advance was made against a fair amount of resistance. It was strongly supported by artillery. ■ ' More than 50 miles to the north forces of the Ist Army advancing east of Liege ffiive reached Eupen, four miles from the German frontier and 10 miles due south of the German town of Aachen. In this border area the Germans are hitting back hard with all available weapons. All along the front between the Aachen sector and Luxembourg the Ist Army is pushing forward through the Ardennes towards the frontier. There is no further news of the British 2nd Army forces which yesterday sent patrols across the frontier into Holland after an advance northwards from their Albert Canal bridgehead. The frontier was crossed about 40 miles east of Antwerp, in the direction of the Dutch town of Eindhoven. South of Luxembourg the American 3rd Army is still meeting stubborn resistance. Fighting is especially heavy round Metz, which the Americans shelled yesterday. Correspondents at headquarters said yesterday that a fair amount of resistance was overcome as the Americans swept across the frontier. It could be said that they were now m touch with the outer defences of the Siegfried Line, set in depth round Trier. Patrols were undoubtedly probing the strength of the line. One report said that the Americans had reached an important town of 60,000 inhabitants on the Moselle. If they smashed through the Siegfried Line at this point, they could push down the Moselle Valley to Coblenz.

OFFICIAL SUMMARY

LONDON, Sept. 12

Allied troops crossed the Luxem-bourg-German frontier, and to the south, we have established contact with our forces advancing from Southern France, reports to-day’s SHAEF communique. In the Moselle Valley we are continuing to meet stubborn resistance along the river. Troops further north, who have crossed the German frontier in force, are now in the area north-west of Trier. Earlier forces, which liberated the city of Luxemburg, had encountered an enemy delaying action north-east of Mersch. Gains were made in the Ardennes in the vicinity of Bastogne. Advances south of Liege have taken our troops across the road between Herve and Aywaille. Allies, ten miles east of Liege, occupied Herve, after encountering scattered enemy resistance. We also have reached Juprelle on the Liege-Ton-gres Road. . Our bridgehead over the Albert Canal has been enlarged in spite of stubborn enemy resistance. We have east of Ghent liberated Lokeren and Saint Nicholas. Allied troops on the coast have reached Blankenberghe. We have taken Wissant and Sangatte. , , Strong forces of medium and light bombers yesterday attacked enemy gun positions and strongpoints between Metz and Thionville. There was no opposition in the air, but heavy flak was encountered. One bomber is missing. Fighter-bombers hit railway targets from Saarbrucken to Cologne, and destroyed and damaged many locomotives and railway cars. Other fighter-bombers attacked an enemy gun fortification in Eastern Belgium.

AMERICAN ADVANCE

LONDON, Sept. 12.

In a swift advance, American forces entered Eupen, a Belgian town only five miles from the German frontier and 45 miles from Cologne, reports Reuter’s correspondent with the United States First Army. American heavy artillery continues to shell German soil from Belgium. German camouflaged activity has been observed along the Rhine under a smoke-screen, suggesting that this may be one of the Germans’ chief lines of defence. Americans are now sounding out pill-box defences around Eupen, in front of the Siegfried Line. Behind them, on the main highway in Belgium, Germans are fighting bitterly to hold the key hub, Limbourg. They are concentrating tanks, artillery and mortars in the town which is flanked with carefully laid mine-fields. German machinegunners gave blazing protection to the minefields, but Americans already are in the outskirts of Limbourg on two sides, fighting through with tanks anti-tank guns, armoured cars and infantry. United States forces on the border are gathering strength as the campaign enters the initial phases of the battle to stab into Germany itself. The morale is excellent. The men keenly excited, talk as if they have scented the kill. SIEGFRIED LINE BATTLE. (Rec. 10.40 a.m. LONDON, Sent. 12. The American armoured division entered Germanv in strength, to-day, after forward elements had crossed the frontier at 6.10 p.m. yesterday, says the Associated Press correspondent with the Americans in Germany. He adds that the American tanks sprang forward, this morning, in a series of strong, audacious thrusts.

Orders for this historic invasion of Germany were issued from a bare barracks building which a few hours earlier housed German troops. The American armoured drive penetrated the Reich on the 26th anniversary of the great American offensive at St. Mihiel in 1918. The British United Press correspondent at the Headquarters of the 12th Army Group says that almost the whole of the Duchy of Luxembourg is now in our hands. The Associated Press corerspondent with the American 3rd Army reports that General Patton’s troops which smashed through the Maginot Line were battling, to-day, for Thionville.

The Exchange Telegraph Agency correspondent at SHAEF says it is possible that the first major battle for the Siegfried Line will soon occur, as the Ist Army troops must soon meet the enemy troops defending this section of the West Wall.

The British armoured drive, yesterday, advanced nine miles into Holland. Reuter’s correspondent with the British 2nd Army says the bridgeheads across the Albert and Meuse Canals have been strengthened.

ANOTHER CROSSING LONDON, Sept. 12. It is stated at SHAEF that the United States First Army, this afternoon, made a second crossing of the German frontier, this time from Eupen. | PROGRESS NEAR NANCY (Recd. 12.35 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 12. I General Patton’s troops are making 'good progress with the new crossing of the Moselle, south of Nancy, states Reuter’s correspondent with the United States Third. Army. They are 'pressing attacks towards Metz. A Third Army spokesman this evening, declared that the situation at Moselle ; W as more promising than for several | da The Associated Press correspondent says: After a week of bloody to and fro fighting, American armour and infantry to-night are flowing across ithe Moselle at two firmly-establish-ed bridgeheads, while footholds have been secured at two other places, flhe spokesman said the attack launched in the Toul area yesterday is progressing satisfactorily. An American General who broke through the Moselle defences juggled the troops back and forth along fifty miles of the river in order to spread the German defences, then struck hard against weak spots. The “Daily Mail” says: The capture of Malmedy (twenty-five miles south-east of Liege) gives the American First Army a second foothold in Germany. Malmedy was annexed from Belgium and incorporated m Germany in 1940. It is nine miles inside the frontier. The Associated Press correspondent on the German-Luxembourg frontier says- The Americans who have thrown the Germans from Luxembourg are now close to the Siegtiivd line, which is plainly visible. Germans can be seen moving into lines of concrete pillboxes and bunkers. GERMAN “SCORCHED EARTH” LONDON, Sept. 12. A “Daily Express” correspondent at Brussels states: “After rushing across France, General Eisenhower s loui armies, in the majority of places, are now meeting with stiffer resistance. Small forward elements keep rolling on towards Germany, but the bulk of the armies are regrouping, building up supplies, and coiling up then spring to be ready to strike again. Meanwhile the Germans are preparing to scorch their own countiy. All the way from El Alamein through Italy and France, they have been laying the countryside waste. Pei sons arriving in Brussels from German} say that demolition squads already are laying charges in the Ruhr. It wd not be any joyride inside ol Geimany. Marshal Montgomery will not be able to appear alone in his c ar, as in the last five countries he conottered. It will be the first time in this war that we shall have enlci ec. a country where the inhabitants are hostile.” HOSTILE RECEPTION. (Rec. 10.45 a.m.) LONDON,. Sept/; 12. “The Americans received their fust indication of the reception awaiting them inside Germany when they marched through thisi Belgian city to-day,” states Reuter’s correspondent at Eupen. The population of Eupen which was part of Germany in the last war, is half Belgian and half German. j , .. “People lined the streets while the smoke of battle was lifting and watched the Americans with some of the glummest faces I have■ seen. The majority were silently hostile. One old man waved to a lorry-load of German prisoners and ignored the Americans. There was a small gioup of people with tears in their eyes standing around the body of a dead German soldier. “We are now for the first time seeing people with fear in their faces. The people of Eupen apparently believed the German propaganda that we are coming in as invading barbarians. This mingled with resentment, is the forerunner of wnat can be expected in Germany. One American infantryman said, It is like jumping into cold water a little bit at a time.’ “The German civilians, whbm we are seeing for the first time are an impressive sight. They are not happy to see us, which does not dampen the spirits of the American soldiers, though it is a strange contrast to the previous receptions and demonstrations. Hereafter it will not be a mixture of resentment and welcome —every one will be an enemy.” FRIENDLY GREETINGS

LONDON, September 12. An American broadcasting from the First Army front, to-night, says: Americans, this afternoon, passed through an unnamed town in the vicinity of Trier. German civilians, instead of resistance, greeted the Americans uproariously threw flowers, embraced them, and even presente 1 gifts of German money.

TROOPS PLEASE “MONTY”

COURAGE AND ENDURANCE

(Rec. 11.35 a.m.) LONDON, September 12. Field Marshal Montgomery is taking a very personal interest in the British Second Army battles north of the Albert Canal, states Reuter’s correspondent on the Dutch frontier. No statement on the battles was made by Montgomery, but, to-day, he was obviously highly pleased with the progress of the operations. The British captured the village of Hechtel, north of the Albert Canal, and took prisoner 400 Germans, says Reuter. We had to take three-quarters of the village house after house before the Germans yielded. They withstood streams of tank shells, yesterday. A British officer describing the fight said: “They would not give in, so we began blotting out the houses. When one house collapsed under our fire they scuttled into the next house. It was a process of extermination.” One British tank man got close enough to hear a German soldier babbling in the heat of battle: “I want to die for Hitler. I want to die for Hitler.” The tank man saw that he did, added the correspondent. The British infantry who won and held the northern bridgehead across the Albert Canal at Gheel have done one of the finest jobs of the campaign in the west. The Germans thought the British crossing was the main thrust, so they attacked furiously for 48 hours.. The British, yesterday, with tenacity and tremendous endurance held 16 different counter-attacks. German artillery hurled round after round against the bridge and sank it, but the British fished it from the water and repaired a whole section before the Germans coul dexploit the situation. Many battalions of German infantry, with some supporting Tiger tanks,

threw themselves against the British in waves. These were desperate suicidal tactics. For instance, 50 Germans with a number of tanks. attacked a machine-gun post. British gunners mowed down 30 Germans, took 16 prisoners, and knocked out five tanks. INFERIOR GERMAN TROOPS (Rec. 12.20 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 12. British tanks are moving forward according to plan through the ditch and dyke land of Holland, while our infantry and armour units coming up from Belgium are mopping up everything they have bypassed, says Reuter’s correspondent on the Dutch frontier. General Dempsey has split the last professional army ahead of the British Second Army. There remain the hotchpotch German formations trying to check and slow up and annoy the British as much as possible. They are not likely to achieve noticeable results, because of lack of persoonel training, weapons, reserves and resources.

Dutch S.S. men, who are good soldiers in the German sense of the word, are opposing the British further north and near the Dutch frontier. Members of the Dutch Forces of the Interior have accounted for a good many of these renegade Dutchmen, each of whom they buried under a little cross, saying simply “Traitor.” Some Germans the British encountered in a sector of the expanding bridgehead across the Meuse Canal did not fire a shot before being driven into the prisoners’ cages. It was deep humiliation for the elite paratroopers to find themselves fighting beside third-class infantry and raw recruits of the Luftwaffe ground staff. BELGIAN ARMY’S CAPTURE. (Rec. 11 a.m.) LONDON, Sept. 12. Belgian troops with the British 2nd Army, to-day, captured Bourg Leopold, which was bypassed in the drive northwards. The British United Press correspondent, cabling from Bourg Leopold, says the Belgian Army had its first big revenge when it captured tihs town. It was here that the Belgian Army, in 1940, fought heroically to retain one of the defensive outposts of the Albert Canal line.

Belgian troops were rushed up in three days from France so they could participate in the recapture of Bourg Leopold, which before the war was one of the main training centres of the Belgian Army and which the Germans converted into a similar centre. All that is now left of Bourg Leopold’s barracks are acres of shattered brickwork. A Belgian staff officer said: “The Germans holding the barracks area, which was the scene of the main fighting, included infantry, paratroops and artillery, old and young soldiers. It helped us that numbers of our- troops were not only trained at Bourg Leopold, but fought for the defence of the town in 1940.” The Belgians began attacking the town on Sunday after British armoured units had bypassed it. The Germans held on to the southern fringe of the barracks until yesterday afternoon, when the Belgians stormed into some of the buildings and ousted the Germans. Fighting is still going on east and north of the barracks area. * ASSAULT 6FIE HAVRE LONDON, Sept. 12. On the Channel coast the fullscale attack on Le Havre is meeting with fair success. Allied armour and infantry are closing in against heavy fire and across minefields. “The Canadians on Sunday opened an all-out assault against Le Havre, and by this morning they had won high ground north-east of the port after heavy fighting,” says Reuter’s correspondent With the Ist Canadian Army. Thick minefields are being encountered, in addition to shelling from coastal emplacements north of the city. Some of the troops fought their way into the northern outskirts of the city itself. The attack began after a tremendous bombardment from the sea and air. Flail tanks were the spearhead of the assault, thrusting through the minefields and beating a path for other tanks, including the fire-gush-ing Crocodile flame-throwers. Two hundred prisoners were taken on Sunday night.” Canadian forces are advancing against the German gun positions on Cap Gris Nez. LE HAVRE SURRENDERS. (Rec. 10.20 a.m.) LONDON, Sept. 12. The German garrison at Le Havre surrendered to the British troops of General Crerar’s force at 11.30 a.m. to-day. The German Commander had been badly wounded. His deputy surrendered the garrison, ordering the troops' to lay down their arms. The surrender came 36 hours after an all-out assault began. Reuter's correspondent says the British, earlier to-day, battled against heavy resistance and fought into the city from the northeast and, after fighting their way through the streets, reached the dock area. Over 3000 of the German garrison were then captured, and the rest suffered heavy casualties from the bombing and shelling. Other British troops north of Le Havre have driven to the sea at Cap de Le Havre and captured coastal gun positions in the area of Octeville, a few miles north of Le Havre. BRITISH TROOPS’ SUCCESS (Recd. 12 Noon). LONDON, Sept. 12. The British 49th Infantry Division, which were driven from Norway in 1940, after which they spent many months’ vigil in Iceland, received the surrender of the German garrison at Le Havre, says Reuter’s correspondent with the First Canadian Army. I The 49th following flail tanks and J “crocodile” flame-throwers, fought • their way to the high ground over- [ looking Le Havre yesterday, then ( drove into the city and its inner de- j ■fences. • A British officer said his men en- | countered every type of obstacle J known to man, but the advance could i not be stopped. They fought from ‘ street, to street and reached the city’s : vast dock areas. j Other units of the First Canadian ■ Army, meanwhile, have continued to:: advance into Belgium. Polish armour ? has driven eastward and joined the | British in the Ghent area. Canadian infantry and armour, thrusting northeast towards the west bank of the Scheldt, are now five miles from the Dutch border. The Canadians are also< besieging Boulogne, Calais, Dunkirk and the heavy gun emplacements on Cap Gris Nez. Congratulations on the effective bombing of the German garrison at Le Havre have been sent by General Crerar-to Air-Marshal Harris. In all, j more than 9500 tons of bombs have been dropped on Le Havre.

WARNING TO CIVILIANS.

EISENHOWER’S BROADCAST,

RUGBY, September 12. “On August 26 I addressed a warning to the German civilians in Luxembourg, Alsace-Lorraine and Germanv west of the Rhine. The advance by the Allied armies and the disintegration of the German armies in the west have brought you within the scope of that warning. I am repeating it now to the inhabi of.the Ruhr and the ' Rhineland, said General Eisenhower in a broadcast.

The areas in which you live are .eady, to-day, in the rear of the military operations. Very soon they may become a theatre of war. In

view of these facts I am giving you the following warning:— “(1) The rear communications of the remnants of the German Army retreating into Germany will be subjected to bombing as devastating as that which preceded and accompanied the Allied campaign in Normandy. Civilians are hereby warned that everyone who lives or works in the vicinity of road, railroad, and canal communications, military depots, camps, installations or factories working for the Nazi war machine must from now on reckon they will not be saved from highlevel and low-level air attack at any hour of the day or night. “(2) In particular, emergency earmarks and fortifications to be areas of special danger. Civilians are warned that all who work on these military targets do so at their own peril. To prevent useless civilian casualties all civilians are advised in the coming weeks to evacuate the danger areas and take refuge in the countryside as far as possible from such areas.

“(3) Civilians are further warned that perpetrators of all atrocities committed against non-Germans in these areas will be brought to trial for their crimes. ‘ Evidence as to these crimes will be accepted by the Allied judicial authorities from German and non-German witnesses.” EASTERN FRANCE LONDON, Sept. 12. In eastern France French troops of the 7th Army have completed the occupation of Dijon and have advanced to places 10 miles to the west and 14 miles to the north. American forces, by reaching Vesoul (50 miles northeast of Dijon), have cut the last escape route through the Belfort gap. The first contact between the Normandy and Mediterranean invasion forces was made on Monday west of Dijon, when patrols of the 3rd and 7th Armies met.

GERMAN GENERAL WOUNDED.

(Rec. 10.20 a.m.)

LONDON, September 12.

The American Seventh Army forces driving from Vesoul have reached Port sur Saone, seven miles to the north-west.

Reuter’s correspondent at Mediterranean Headquarters reports that the Americans have knocked out another German General. He is MajorGeneral Albin Nake, the Commander of the 159th Reserve Division. The Americans strafed and wrecked the car in which Nake was travelling in Southern France. The General was critically wounded but not taken prisoner. There are indications that the bag of German prisoners cut off in Eastern France after the junction of the Third and Seventh Armies may be appreciable.

DE GAULLE’S BROADCAST

LONDON, September 12

General de Gaulle, broadcasting to France over the Paris radio, revealed that five-sixths of France had completed its liberation. He added, amid cheers: “We pay homage to the British Empire.” General de Gaulle, -who also paid a tribute to Russia and America, added that' between June 6 ana September 10 105,000 Germans surrendered to the French Army and 35,000 to the F.F.I.

“France must play her part, in the organisation of world peace. France has had an exceptional experience in dealing with the problems of Europe. None of the problems of to-day and to-morrow can be settled without France.” LATER. Millions in France who for five years listened secretly at the risk of their lives, openly stood in streets and squares of their liberated France, today, to hear de Gaulle broadcast, says the “Daily Express” Paris correspondent. Hundreds of loudspeakers were erected in Paris and traffic was diverted from the capital’s open spaces. Employers gave workpeople time off to listen. Electricity, normally turned off all day in Paris was turned on to enable the use o£ radios, and for de Gaulle’s broadcast. Do Gaulle said: “Those who intended to impose themselves on our oppressed nation are now definitely finished. There is one faith which directed the French people—truth. It was not easy to organise forces to stamp out the German military might and fanaticism abetted by treason, but France continued fighting and is now witnessing the arrival of the hour of victory.” „ , , France, added de Gaulle had suffered more from Germany than any other country. As soon as France was completely liberated and the war prisoners home, the nation would be led to the ballot box, and the National Assembly would be re-established.

GERMANS KEPT GUESSING.

A PROGRESS REVIEW.

RUGBY, September 12. The- second threat to Hitler’s West Wall is developing with new big drives by the Ist Army columns radiating from Liege towards the Siegfried Line and the important buttress town of Aachen in a wide semicircle. says a correspondent at SHAEF. This advance puts the Germans in much the same quandary as they were before Caen. The Allied Command have retained the initiative all along, and can afford to exploit it and keep the German Generals guessing on the location of the major move which will decide the Battle of Germany. In addition to the two threats to the Siegfried Line those in charge of the defence of Germany have to keep a look-out to the north, where both the British and American Armies are pushing hard into Holland, and an even sharper eye on the veiled movements of the United States 3rd and 7th Armies, now merged somewhere south of Nancy and possessing all the potentialities of men, equipment and armour for a mighty thrust into the Reich from a direction which the German Command can only hazard. While this guesswork is keeping the German General Staff busy in their map rooms, further big progress is reported in the Allied northern sector north of Belgium, on the Dutch border and on the active eastern portion of the battlefront. There are no further details of the American invasion of Germany from Luxembourg in the neighbourhood of Trier, but further north the Ist Army has captured the historic fort of Eben Emael after comparatively light resistance. This stronghold was taken by German paratroops in 1940. when they invaded France and the Low Countries. The advance has brought the American forces to a point only a mile from the Dutch border.

To the east Ist Army troops have occupied Eupen, five miles east of Limbourg and only six miles from the German frontier south of Aachen. South-east of Aachen these columns have driven on to capture the village of Spa, and from there have advanced several miles to Malmedy, 20 miles south-south-west of Aachen. In the north they have nearly closed up to the southern portion of the Dutch frontier.

The first Americans to fight on German soil, it was . disclosed this evening, crossed the Reich frontier in the vicinity of Trier at 4.10 p.m. G.M.T.. yesterday. Further south a blanket of securitv veils the movements of General Patton’s 3rd Army, which is now linked up with elements of the 7th Army pushing up from the south.

With the fall of Le Havre .it is

likely that the fall of Boulogne, Calais and Dunkirk will follow. In the north General Dempsey’s 2nd British Army is cracking the last lines of the German defences barring our sweep through to Holland, and the key town of Bourg Leopold, round which the battle for the Albert Canal has raged, is now in Allied hands.