FLOODS HOLD NORTHERN LINE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21580, 6 December 1944, Page 3

FLOODS HOLD NORTHERN LINE

tyAZIS DEFEND RHINE ESCAPE ROUTE HEAVY U.S. BOMBERS RAID BERLIN (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (|1 a.m.) LONDON, Dec. 5. Having’ overcome some of the most formidable obstacles which nature and the Germans can devise, U.S. Third Army troops are; now within six miles of Saarbrucken, and focal-point Qf : ',German mining and heavy industry in the Saar Basin, latest advances in the neighbourhood of Saarlouis (Saarlautern) area have brought the big German city well within range of the Alherican artillery, and its value as a communications centre as well' as an industrial focus must now be decidedly limited. ' Third Army troops are fighting their way onwards through the thickly mine-sown outposts of the Siegfried Line itself. The jpt) ahead is a very tough one, but General Patton’s men are elated at their capture of two Saar River crossings, and are punching solidly into the German lines. ’ Floods in the extreme north of the line have brought fighting there almost to a standstill, the inundations caused by German destruction of dams and dykes having dislocated comihunications and fighting organisation to some extent. American. Army troops continue to make progress in the Duren sector, however, and have taken more ground and villages. In the south, the Germans are fighting with characteristic vigour and resource to hold their remaining bridgehead at Colmar, by which they hope to evacuate their formations escaping with difficulty from the Vosges. American and French columns have made good progress towards a link-up, but weather are against them. ; i ; A heavy raid on Berlin, carried outlast night by U.S. Fortresses and Liberators, was the first big strike at the German capital for two months. The Luftwaffe sent up hundreds of fighters to meet the 550 U.S. bombers and their 800 Mustang escorters, and suffered heavy losses in air combat. The R.A.F. dropped 3500 tons of bombs on other German cities during the night, particularly on Western Germany.