PERSISTENT PRESSURE

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 December 1944, Page 5

PERSISTENT PRESSURE

GAINS ON WESTERN FRONT ROER-RHINE ADVANCES LONDON, December 14. To-day’s communique from Allied Supreme Headquarters says: Allied troops in the Julich-Duren sector, after overcoming heavy resistance, cleared Schophoven, three miles south-east of Julich. We have captured MariaweTier and Gey. We have made gains in areas north and south of Monschau. We have captured Roolesbroich and Simmerath. We have also progressed in the forest area about four miles south-east of Monschau. In the Saar Valley our forces in the Dillingen bridgehead have been subjected to considerable artillery fire. We crossed the Blies River, north-east of Saareguemines. Fighting continues in Habkirchen. Gains of up to three miles have been made in Northern Alsace, just west of the lower Vosges hills. Our forces north-west of Bitche went through the Maginot Line to Kappellenhoff. In a drive north of the Hagenau Forest we have cleared Sulz, ten miles north-east of Hagenau, and several nearby villages. Fighting continues at Seitz. SHELLING ACROSS RHINE LONDON, Dec. 14. At the northern end of the Western Front the American Ist Army is now on or overlooking the west bank of the river Roer for a stretch of five miles opposite the town of Duren. They have cleared seven fortified villages which were barring their way to the river. To the south other Ist Army forces have taken two villages, and north of Duren, the 9th Army has straightened its line to link up with the Ist Army. The American 7th Army has reached the Rhine in the area opposite Karlsruhe, beyond the town of Seitz. American artillery is shelling German towns across the Rhine. Other 7th Army forces are surging forward to the Rhine on a 20-mile front. GERMANS DESTROY BRIDGES. LONDON, December 13. Reuter’s correspondent reported: “The Americans, after throwing the Germans out of Seitz, are now operating on the banks of the Rhine itself, but Seitz is under heavy German artillery fire. The Germans have destroyed the Rastatt railway bridge over the Rhine (15 miles south-west of Karlsruhe) and have blown up bridges over the Seltzbach River. Some of the American Army’s heaviest guns are moving up for the great assault into Germany. Some German companies oi> this front have a strength of only 20 men. Prisoners include Italians, Czechs, Jugoslavs, and even a few Indians wearing British uniforms, who were captured in Africa.” The German Official News Agency commentator (Captain Sertorius) says: “The German forces have been ordered to make a stand along the Seigfried Line on the Palatinate border. Here, Tffoody yard-by-yard warfare will begin for the American divisions.”

No activity was reported yesterday from the British 2nd Army and United States 9th Army fronts. French Ist Army forces at the southern end of the front progressed only slightly on the Alsace plain, where flooded rivers and stubborn German resistance are impeding their advance. AMERICAN ADVANCES.

(Rec. 10.40) LONDON, Dec. 14. More progress was made by the Seventh Army forces, who are closing up to the German border all along their front, says the Exchange Telegraph Agency’s SHAEF correspondent. The latest move seems directed against the encircling of the whole of Hagenau Forest north of Hagenau. The Americans on the western side are sweeping in an eastward curve, while other forces who reached the eastern tip of the forest are advancing westward. Only seven miles separates the two bodies which are threatening to trap the Germans in the forest. Latest advances measure to three miles, despite heavy minefields. The enemy’s resistance is described as scattered.

The Americans north of this sector captured Mattsall six miles northeast of Reichshoffen and three miles from the German border. Americans in the Bitsche sector farther west found some Maginot defences flooded, but wherever possible the Germans are manning them against us. The Americans virtually cleared the entire Aachen-Cologne Autobahn to a point where it crosses the Roer River says Reuter’s correspondent with the First Army. The capture of this super-highway is likely to have an important bearing on the. Allied supply problems, for the drive to Cologne and the Ruhr. The Germans are bringing up more panzers for the defence of the Roer River line, as the Americans’ double drive south of Duren increases in strength. American infantry made further small gains eastward and southward beyond Fraulautern, and captured more Siegfried Line pill-boxes, and fortified houses says Reuter’s correspondent with the Third Army. The Americans repulsed counter-attacks at Habkirchen, but the Germans succeeded in knocking out a bridge oyer the Blies river before withdrawing from our Dillingen bridgehead which has been strengthened with more armour which crossed the Saar at night, linking up with Americans in the town of Dillingen. CLOSING ON DUREN. (Rec. noon.) LONDON, Dec. 14. Now 21 miles into Germany General Hodge’s forces to-day tightened the ring closing in on Duren by the capture of Gurzenbach guarding the western outskirts of Duren, says the Exchange Telegraph Agency’s correspondent with the United States First Army. The entire west bank of the Roer River between Linnich and Marianweiler has virtually been cleared of all resistance, although the British United Press correspondent with the First Army points out that a few Germans are holding out in a castle near Schophoven. The Germans today demolished three bridges north of Duren. First Army troops made further local advances in the Manschau area.

While General Hodges pounds on through the Aachen gap to the west bank of the Roer, and General Patton’s bridgeheads over the Saar are still close locked in the Siegfried defences, General Patch’s Seventh Army troops are making the most of the fluid situation in Northern Alsace, created by the snapping of the Hagenau hinge, and the enemy’s apparent inability to hold everywhere at once, says “The Times’s” correspondent at SHAEF. Two columns, flanking the Hagenau Forest almost joined forces and a good pari of the German Army may yet be cut off in the Colmar pocket. MR. STIMSON’S REVIEW. (Rec. 12.25 p.m.) WASHINGTON. Dec. 14. Allied armies on the Western Front are now in a position to jump off upon the most important German industrial regions, said Mr. Stimson at a Press conference. He warned, however, that gains should be assessed cautiously. Summing up the results since the general offensive begun in November, Mr. Stimson said it placed Germany under a terrific strain. It had

been estimated that German casualties between November 8 and November 11 were approximately 152,000, roughly 7000 daily killed, wounded and prisoners. He added that doubtless the figure was smalled now, nevertheless it was obvious a considerable number of German divisions were badly mauled. We have partly breached the Seigfried Line to the Ruhr Valley, but we too, have sustained many casualties.