AMERICAN 3rd ARMY FOLLOWS UP

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21619, 23 January 1945, Page 3

AMERICAN 3rd ARMY FOLLOWS UP

WITHDRAWAL FROM THE BULGE

MASS OF TRANSPORT HEAVILY BLITZED (11.30 a.m.) RUGBY, Jan. 22. Masses of German transport have been observed moving east and north-east in and behind the Ardennes bulge, where the American Third Army continues to follow up the enemy withdrawal. The British launched a new attack: east of Brebern and advanced more than a mile in an area three or four miles south-east of Heinsberg. The British have also pushed more than a mile beyond the pocket and are fighting on the outskirts of the neighbouring villages of Selsten and Honten. The Americans are fighting in Wiltz. A correspondent says the roads, chock full of enemy transport and armour moving east, were so thick that the American lighter-bombers could not miss inflicting damage. The concentrations were in two areas, one around Prum and the other about eight miles north of Diekrich. They were spotted in the morning and were bombed and strafed continuously. It is estimated that 1500 vehicles are in both groups. The pilots so far have claimed the destruction of 228 motor transports with 65 damaged and 15 tanks and armoured vehicles destroyed. The Americans have reached points between seven and nine miles west of the German frontier. Progress on the flanks around Vianden in the south and St. Vith in the north was slower. A Supreme Allied Headquarters correspondent says that by mid-afternoon to-day the 19th Tactical Air Force has beaten all previous records for motor transport destroyed and damaged in a single day. It had by then already accounted for more than the great bag of 833 vehicles it had destroyed or damaged in the Meziers and Metz area and south of the Loire on September 1 last.