ALLIES FORGE ON

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21550, 1 November 1944, Page 3

ALLIES FORGE ON

NEARING MAAS germansHpull back SOME MAY~BE CUT OFF RUGBY, Oct. 31 “It has been a day of satisfactory progress,” said the spokesman at second Army Headquarters to-nighi. "Our troops nave reached a point IUUt yards due north of Loon op Zand whence there was a general fanning out yesterday. Demolished bridge.' are putting the brake on our advances. Other obstacles are mines and small pockets of the enemy equipped with automatic weapons anti snipers. Nowhere has the opposition been heavy. Aware that the position for the German troops soutn ot the Maas is hopeless, General von Zangen is concentrating on the now familiar German retreat tactics, leaving various hard crusts of resistance in vita, areas while .the mam bony vv.uicuc... to light other battles in the back areas or on shorter lines. The rapid northerly thrusts of the British aria Canadians to-day may succeed in cutting olf a fair bag of several tnousana prisoners. Numerous watercourses and boggy country may, however, enable considerable Nazi forces to reach the Maas and beyond, blowing bridges and communications as they go. me last lateral road and rail link south of the Maas is now no further use to General von Zangen’s troops with the two British northerly thrusts which will put our troops astride the Herto-genbosch-Rotterdam rail line, which is the last lateral highway. This evening our troops are within sight oi these communications —one group from the neighbourhood of Ousterhout and the other from the Kaatsheuvel area. Germans Prepare to Stand British, Canadian, American ana Polish troops are now closing in along the Mark Canal which runs between the Hollandschediep and the BredaRoosendaal line, states Reuter’s correspondent with the First Canadian Army to-night. The Germans have blown up ail the bridges along the canal and apparently are preparing' to light a rearguard battle on the southern bank of the Hollandschediep to cover their retreat to central Holland. The Poles pursuing the retreating Germans reached the canal at two points. British troops, anei the capture of Roosendaal, reached Oudgastel, two miles below the canal. The British force which thrust northward from .the Bergen-Roosendaai road is only three miles irom the canal at a paint midway between Oudgastel and Steenbergen. Even the German paratroops, who have been fighting furiously along tne ner-gen-Roosendaal road, whicn is tne hinge of the withdrawal from southwestern Holland, suddenly weakeneo and .the Canadians thrust three nines north oi Bergen to Halsteren. A number of Germans managed te escape over the Walcheren causeway before the Canadians closed it, out n is estimated that more than half the garrison have been killed, wounded or captured. Walcheren is the last German stronghold in the south Scheldt which can deny the Allies the use oi Antwerp. The Exchange and Telegraph Agency’s correspondent at Second Tactical Air Force Headquarters says that six rocket-firing Typhoons yesterday wrecked a wooden bridge across .the Deurne Canal which tne Germans erected to replace tne permanent bridge previously destroyed. The Typhoons rake.d the whole length ol the structure with cannon lire and left it on fire. Whole Front Advance A communique from Supreme Allied Headquarters says: “South o, the Scheldt, we captured Kadzano and Zuidamde. We enlarged the seaborne bridgehead in South Beveland Island to the westward. The Allied forces continued to advance along the whole front south of the Maas River. Our forces are some miles north ana west of Zoon op Zand. We held further enemy attacks in the Meijel area. “In the Luneville sector, we made slight gains. East of Rambervillers we took the village of Fraipertuis and held it against strong counter-attacks. We repulsed other 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 and bridges at Roer-: mond, Konzkarthaus, Euskirchen, Mayen and Eller. Fighter-bombers destroyed three bridges and damaged a fourth across the river south oi Bonn and sealed two nearby railway tunnels. Fighter-bombers also hit highways radiating northwards from Duren, the railway yard at Kcrpen and cut railway lines in many places between Munster and the GermanDutch frontier and in the areas of Bonn and Coblenz. They also attacked locomotives, railcars and barges over a wide area. According to reports thus far received, 28 enemy planes were shot down during the day. One medium bomber and nine fighter-bombers are missing.”