HERTOGENBOSCH TAKEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 October 1944, Page 5

HERTOGENBOSCH TAKEN

GERMANS MUST RETREAT CANADIAN FURTHER PROGRESS LONDON, October 25. Organised German resistance in the Dutch town of Hertogenbosch has ended, according to an agency correspondent. This is not confirmed, but earlier news was that British 2nd Army troops had driven the Germans into the south-west corner of the town, and had cut all but one of their escape routes, leaving open only the road to the west. Other British forces are making rapid headway south and south-west of Hertogenbosch. They have captured Bokstel, about 10 miles south of Hertogenbosch, on the road to Eindhoven, and are now across the road from Hertogenbosch to Tilburg, towards which the enemy is pulling back. A 8.8. C. reporter says that Tilburg, an important road and railway junction with a pre-war population of about 80,000, is expected to be the focal point of the next phase of the battle in Holland. Already, says this correspondent, there has been a great change. Instead of threatening the Allied salient which extends north to Nijmegen, the German 15th Army now finds itself in a very difficult position. North of Antwerp, Canadian troops have increased the danger to the German on the Scheldt Islands. The Canadians have now driven some distance along the causeway between South Beveland and the mainland. With Lieutenant-General Dempsey's new drive threatening to outflank them, the Germans in the pocket south of Hertogenbosch have pulled out and are now falling back to Tilburg, says a National Broadcasting Company report from Holland. “The British are racing to catch up with them. Fighting is still going on in Hertogenbosch, but it looks as though the German hold on south-western Holland is slipping.” The German troops in the southwest Netherlands and the Scheldt estuary now face a serious threat. They are believed to number about 70,000, and while it is too early to speak of encirclement, the Germans are in a difficult position because of the Canadian pressure from the south and the new British attack to the north. OFFICIAL~SUMMARY. LONDON, October 25. To-day’s communique from Supreme Headquarters says: South of Breskens the road from Schoondijke to Oostburg is in our hands, and Allied troops are on the edge of Oostburg. Further gains south of Rozendaal brought us to the neighbourhood of Pindorp. Some progress was also made north-east and north of Woensdrecht. Our troops are fighting in the outskirts of Hertogenbosch and cut the main road and railway both north and a few miles south of the town. Fighter-bombers supported ground forces south of. Beveland Peninsula, and hit military buildings at Dordrecht. Other fighter-bombers attacked strongpoints north-east of Nijmegen Fighter-bombers in strength attacked road and rail transportation targets in Holland and Western Germany. Over 100 locomotives and many freight cars were destroyed m the areas of Hanover and Kassel. There were no substantial changes in the area north of Aachen to Luneville Patrol activity continued m the Moselle Valley. Our units encountered sporadic artillery and small-arms fire. We treed Menai - moot, five miles south-west oi Baccarat. We made further gains northeast of Epinal and have taken the villages of Mortagne and Bifontame. Our forces in the Vosges Mountains are improving their positions. SERIES OF~SUCCESSES. (Rec. 9.55 a.m.) LONDON, Oct. 25. The whole position in the Dutch lowlands seems to be swinging in the Allies’ favour, says Reuter s SHABf correspondent. The important communications hub of Tilberg is now threatened from the east by the British 2nd Army’s advance, and the German forces in this area are thinning out. The Allies further west are moving to complete the bottling up of the neck of the South Beveland Peninsula, where 11,000 Gelmans are isolated. The British took 1400 prisoners in the Hertogenbosch area in three days. The Associated Press correspondent with the British 2nd Army says that 2nd Army forces dealt the German Army in the west of Holland the heaviest blow of its four-day offensive by storming across the enemy’s main communication hne north and south of Hertogenbosch. The British early to-day crossed both the railway and the vital road near Orten, one and a half miles north ot Hertogenbosch, while another force, driving north-westward and westward, cut the main road in the aiea three miles south of the town. Most of Hertogenbosch is now in our hands. Organised resistance in the town has ceased, and its complete occupation can take only a matter of hours. The British United Press correspondent reports that the Canadians have captured Fort Frederik Hendrik Other Canadians have advanced 2000 yards beyond Woensdrecht and are now within three to lour thousand yards of Bergenopzoom. The correspondent adds that there are indications that the Germans are withdrawing northward from the Tilburg-Breda area after the collapse of their lines. British patrols, last night, penetrated four miles to the westward without meeting the enemy. NAZIS PULLING OUT RUGBY. October 25. On Wednesday afternoon British troops were clearing the remaining Nazi elements from the southern portion of Hertogensbosch, the strongest enemy communication centre south oi the Maas, and west of the corridor, writes a correspondent with the Second Army. With the capture of Hertogenbosch, the Commander ol the Nazi forces in this western area, Vonzagen, is faced with the immediate necessity of pulling back to a shorter line to defend Bergenop Zoom, Roosendaal, Breda and Tilbutg, although the nature of the defence would probably only be a screen to cover the inevitable Nazi retreat from the western area north to the line of the Maas or beyond. Already there are indications that Nazi columns are pulling out rapidly to the north, particularly in the vicinity of Tilburg ,where the British pressure south of Hertogenbosch forms an untenable salient.

EASTERN AREA

LONDON, October 25.

In eastern France the Germans are shelling American 3rd Army positions with 7001 b shells from railway guns. These shells are causing somedamage and casualties. A new German division has been identified in the Vosges. It is one of the new People’s Grenadier divisions. A correspondent says that this division is not to be despised, for it has excellent equipment, and its officers and non-commissioned officers are first-class soldiers.