THIRD ARMY GAINS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21602, 3 January 1945, Page 3

THIRD ARMY GAINS

TWO TOWNS FALL NAZIS EXERT PRESSURE ALLIED ROAD LINKS (10 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 2. American Third Army I'orces have recaptured both Remagne and Wardin, says the • British United Press correspondent at Supreme . Allied Headquarters. Remagne, which, with Moircy, fell to a powerful Germah counter-attack on December 20, was taken by the Americans again after the enemy’s attack spent itself. Reuter’s correspondent says that the object of the enemy’s pressure in this sector is apparently to deny the Allies road communication between Bastogne and St. Hubert. The German positions also provide a good natural obstacle against the American advance. The gains* which the Third Army made north of Bastogne and to within two miles of St. Hubert were the result of separate advances. “Allied artillery dispersed enemy patrols which were again active across the Maas River in the Roermond area,” says a communique from Supreme Allied Headquarters. “There has been increased artillery fire in the area south of Duren. Two Miles From St. Hubert “Allied forces along the southern flank of the Ardennes salient reached points less than two miles south of St. Hubert. We progressed north-east of Moircy. We entered Remagne and captured Houmont, six miles west of Bastogne, and also Chenogne. We repulsed two enemy counter-attacks in the Bastogne sector, and one in the area of Champs, three miles north-west and the other near Villers Le Bonneau, five miles south-south-east of Bastogne. . We are in the vicinity of Wardin, three miles east-south-east of Bastogne. Stiff fighting is progressing near Nothum, two and a-half miles south-west of Wiltz,, after an enemy counter-attack. Enemy artillery was active in _ the vicinity of Roullingen, one mile south of Wiltz. “We made small gains in Saarlous bridgehead. Enemy forces were aggressive from the area of Bitche to the Rhine. One of a series of enemy attacks made a slight gain in the wooded area south of Bannstein, which is five miles south-east of Bitche. We repulsed other attacks in the vicinity of Bitche and Dambach, four miles north of Niederbronn. Enemy artillery harassed towns in the Alsace plain. We turned back hostile patrols at several points near Mulhouse.” S.H.A.E.F. SILENT RUGBY, Doc. 21. Supreme Headqarters lias no comment to make on a rumoured change of command on the Western Front