NEAR THE MAAS

Greymouth Evening Star, 31 October 1944, Page 5

NEAR THE MAAS

MORE GAINS IN HOLLAND

GERMAN RETREAT CONTINUED

ENEMY LOSSES HEAVY

LONDON, October 30.

In Western ■ Holland, the British 2nd Army and the Canadian Ist Army are keeping up their advance along the whole front south of the river Maas. After the liberation oi Breda, two powerful columns, one on each side of the town, began the final thrust towards lhe river. British troops were last reported to be little more than three miles from the lower Maas. The Canadians, racing towards the enemy’s main crossings oi the Maas Estuary at Muerdijk, were last reported eight miles iipm the river. The Germans are falling back in good order. , j On the island of South Beveland, the Canadians who advanced from the mainland have captured the town of Goes, the largest on the island. They are now linked up with the British troops who landed on South Bexeland from the sea lour days ago. South of the Scheldt Estuary the German pocket has been reduced to an area 10 miles long and eight miles Royal Air Force medium bombers scored a major success when they destroyed a large road • bridge over the river Maas at Roermond in Holland on Saturday morning. At least three sticks of bombs struck the centre of the bridge, which collapsed. The operation eliminated one of the Germans’ most important supply routes in Eastern Holland. Mitchells and Bostons also attacked a bridge carrying the road and railway over the river at Venloo. Bombs were seen to fall in the target area and devastation was caused in the railway yards.

OFFICIAL SUMMARY

LONDON, October 30

To-day’s communique from Supreme Headquarters says: South of the Schedlt, we captured Kadzano and Zuidambe. We have enlarged the seaborne bridgehead in South Beveland to the westward. Allied forces have continued to advance along the whole front south of the Maas River. Our forces are some miles north and west of Zoonopland. We have held further enemy attacks in the Meijel area. In the Luneville sector we made slight gains. j , x , East of Rambervillers we took the village of Fraipertuis and held it against strong counter-attacks against our positions in the Vosges Mountains. Fighter-bombers cut the railway lines between Amersfoort and Zwolle also in the Venlo area and elsewhere behind the battle areas in Holland. Medium bombers attacked communications at Venlo, bridges at Roermond, Konzkarthaus, ’ Euskirchen, Mayen and Eller. Fighter-bombers destroyed three bridges and damaged a fourth across the Sarr River south of Bonn, and sealed two nearby railway tunnels. Fighter-bombers also hit highways radiating northwards from Duren, the railway yard at Kerpen and cut the rail lines at many places between Munster and the Ger-man-Dutch frontier and in areas of Bonn and Coblenz. They also attacked locomotives, railcars and barges over a wide area. According to reports thus far received, twenty-eight enemy planes were shot down. One medium bomber and nine of our fighterbombers are missing.

LOCAL GERMAN GAINS

LONDON, October 30

To-day’s Allied communique reports that more German counter-at-tacks have been repelled on the east Hank of the Dutch salient, in the area west of Veenloo.

An earlier report said that in the Meijel area the Germans had brought up strong forces and pushed forward three miles, but these were only local gains. The enemy had been made to pay heavily for his temporary successes by the American forces under Lieutenant-General Dempsey’s command.

GERMAN CONFUSION (Recd. 10 a.m.) "LONDON, Oct. 30. With the Allied offensive in southwestern Holland apparently approaching a victorious conclusion, the British captured the village of Kaatsheuvel, seven miles north of Tilburg, and three miles south of the Maas. They arejjpw within two miles of the last lateral road before the Maas, says Reuter’s correspondent with the British Second Army. A staff officer at Field Marshal Montgomery’s headquarters said to-day: The enemy’s order of battle is very confused. He js not retreating according to plan. A real hammer and tongs battle was developing to-day on the eastern flank of the Allies’ Nijmegan salient, as the Germans attack west of the Maas, adds Reuter’s. The enemy’s thrust is supported by two panzer divisions and he is throwing in Luftwaffe formations of 20 to 30 planes. The Germans yesterday lost fifteen of the fifty tanks they sent in. German artillery is also giving support after long silence.

Hard bitter fighting is going on north-west, west, and south-west of Meijel. The Germans still hold Liessel, but they are up against a very solid Allied force. American infantry and armour have beaten back a new German spoiling attack in the Nederweert area. A Canadian Press correspondent in Belgium reports that flying bombs are now chugging over into Belgium’ day and night. The majority of them are believed to be launched from aircraft. ENEMY ATTACK STOPPED BIG WITHDRAWAL BEGINNING (Recd. 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, Oct. 30. German troops, by boat, bridge and ferry are streaming north over the Maas, to-night, as the battle of Southwest Holland enters its crucial phase, states the Associated Press correspondent on the British front in Holland. British armoured columns driving on the heels of the retreating Germans have reached Capelie, less than two miles from the Maas; and have raced , north-west from the Tilburg sector to capture Dongen and Oosterhout. The German counter-attack on the east flank of General Dempsey’s fastexpanding Nijmegen corridor has been brought to a standstill, and to--night British trops are fighting their way into the outskirts, of Liessel. Reuter’s correspondent says a big German withdrawal may be beginning to-night. More of General Model’s transport has been observed moving northwards along the Dutch roads. The Maas ferries are working overtime. The news right across the British battlefield, to-night, is good. The day’s honours go equally to the armour and the infantry. All headquarters report a great killing of German troops. The British United Press correspondent says the British line is pushing forward like a bulldozer, sweeping everything before it. Our troops are getting a fair bag of prisoners The British troops have entered Roosendaal and cleared most of the

enemy out of the town during to-day. There were only the usual re ® rg^ r A s and snipers to be cleaned up Armoured reconnaissance are already pushing on. north of Roosendaal, the capture of which means that the German jnilitary. machine, which hitherto has been operating smoothly, is developing stubborn real guard actions and must be badly dislocated, says Reuter’s correspondent. The Germans are trying desperately to withdraw their troops from south of the Maas. The bridge ol Moerdijk ferries at Willemstad are crammed with vehicles seeking to escape northW The Canadians have smashed right through South Beveland and stand on the threshold of Walcheren Island. The Germans there are doomed unless they can escape in small boats from the northern end of the island. Reuter’s correspondent at SHAJir, aft* 3 ! - reviewing the information IvaUable Were, lays the battle for the approaches to Antwerp appears to have been won.

“DAY OF PROGRESS” RUGBY, October 30. Troops of General Dempsey’s 2nd Army captured Oosterhout, five miles north-east of Breda, m the course of a six miles advance to-day, and now less than three miles from the Maas River, states a correspondent with the 2nd Army. Their nearest point to the river is Capelie. Dongen was taken this morning, and nearly a score of small towns liberated. “It has been a day of progress,” said the spokesman at headquarters to-night. Our troops reached a point a thousand yards due north of Loon op Zand, whence there was a general fanning-out yesterday. Demolished bridges are putting a brake on our advances. Other obstacles are mines and small pockets of enemy resistance equipped with automatic weapons and snipers. Nowhere has the opposition been heavy. Aware that the position for the German troops south of the Maas River is hopeless, General von Zangen is concentrating on the now familiar German retreat tactics, leaving various hard crusts of resistance in vital areas, while the main body. withdraws to fight other battles m the back areas,.or on shorter lines. The rapid northerly thrusts of the British and Canadians to-day may succeed in cutting off a fair bag of several thousand prisoners. Numerous watercourses and boggy country may, however, enable considerable Nazi forces to reach the Maas River and beyond, blowing bridges and communications as they go. The last lateral road and rail link south of the Maas now is of no further use to yon Zangen’s troops, with two British northerly thrusts which will put our troops astride the Hertogenbosch-Rotterdam railway line, which is the last lateral highway. This evening our troops are within sight of these communications, one group from the neighbourhood of Oosterhout and the ether from the Kaatsheuvel area.

CLOSING ON CANAL

(Rec. 1.30 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 30. British, Canadian, American, and Polish troops are now closing in along the Mark Canal, which runs between the Holiand-Schediep ad the Breda-Roosendaal line, states Reuter’s correspondent with the First Canadian Army. The Germans have blown up all the bridges along the canal, and apparently are preparing to tight a rearguard battle on the southern bank of the HoliandSchediep to cover the retreat to Sentral Holland. Poles, pursuing the retreating Germans, reached the canal at two "points. British troops after the capture of Roosendaal reached Oodgastel, two miles below the canal. The British force which thrust northward from the Bergen-Roosendaal Road, is only three miles from the canal at a point midway between Oudgastel and Steenbergen. Even the German paratroops, who had been fighting furiously along the BergenRoosendaal Road, which is the hinge of the withdrawal from Southwestern Holland, suddenly weakened and the Canadians thrust three miles north of Bergen to Halsteren. A number of Germans managed to escape over the Walcheren causeway before the Canadians closed it, but it is estimated that more than half the garrison were killed, wounded or captured. Walcheren is the last German stronghold south of the Scheldt which can deny the Allies the use of Antwerp. AACHEN’S BURGOMASTER (Rec. 1 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 30. A German, whose name cannot be disclosed because the Germans have threatened death to anyone taking office under the Allies, has been appointed Burgomaster of Aachen by the Allied military authorities. The “Daily Telegraph’s” Aachen correspondent says he answered “Ja” when he took the oath to perform the duties conscientiously. Investigators were satisfied he had been anti-Nazi since Hitler’s assumption of power. ADVANCE ON RHINE U.S.A. COMMANDER’S COMMENT RUGBY; October 30. To get to the Rhine is going to be a much stiffer fight than hitherto, a correspondent was told by Major.-Gen. Clarence Huebner, Commandei' of the' First American Army, who captured Aachen. “The enemy has had time to get enough forces together. We shall have to break, another shell. I think, however, it is going to be done without too much loss. But the wet weather and bad ground are not helping us.” Speaking of the fall of Aachen, Gen. Huebner said: “Numbers do not count. Organisation is the secret: making the enemy fight where he does not want to fight. When Wilck lost Observatory Hill, he lost the key to the defence of Aachen. He tried to get it back but failed and his attempts cost him plenty. We took Aachen methodically. We just reduced the city gradually forcing the enemy to fight it our way.” General Huebner claimed the successful outcome of the battle of Aachen was the direct result of his division’s action at Mons. As the division streaked towards Mons early in September it ran into the flank of the German corps extricating itself eastwards along the Mone-Liege road, in a frantic .race to beat the Allies to the west wall. In the fights which followed, the German Army suffered one of its most catastrophic defeats in France. All elements of the First United States Division, even headquarters troops, engineers and artillery, fought in close combat.

DUNKIRK AND L’ORIENT

LONDON, October 30

Berlin radio reports: Allied troops launched three attacks in succession against the garrison at Dunkirk and

succeeded in making a break-through, but the penetration was held.. There were artillery duels at L’Orieni. The Berlin radio states that the Allies, granted the German request to evacuate 9300 civilians from §t. Nazaire. The evacuation was carried out immediately. ‘ te GERMAN BOY-SOLDIERS. LONDON, October 30. Fifty thousand German boys aged 15 to 16 have been transported from Berlin and Pomerania to East Prussia to be trained for Volkssturm. A similar transportation is being arranged from Kassel, Frankfurt, and Stuttgart, but these boys will be sent to the west to bolster up the western front. _