ARNHEM IN RUINS

Grey River Argus, 27 September 1944, Page 5

ARNHEM IN RUINS

CORRIDOR STRUGGLE Traffic maintained U.S. Big Barrage [Aus. & N.Z. Press Assn.] LONDON, September 25. British tanks and armour are fighting furiously to restore the situation south of Nijmegen, where picked German Storm Troopers, with supporting tanks at dawn on Monday morning cut the vital road to the Rhine. On Sunday night the Gelmans launched an attack and forced their way into General Dempsey s corridor between Stoedenrode and Vechel. By dawn several hundred Germans were firmly astride the mam British supply', route, which was cut was closed to Allied traffic all day. Captain Sertorius says: New Gearman counter-attacks were initiated in the Vechel area against the most sensitive point of the Allied Dutch corridor. The German High Command has not given up plans to cut off the Allied forces which thrust to Nijmege A Daily Telegraph correspondent with the British 2nd Army near Nijmegen says; “There have been stiong German forces on either side of our so-called corridor. The breadth of onadvance has been scarcely more than the breadth of the highway. It would be quite misleading to think of the German troops west of the r ? ad , a j cut off or trapped. They constituted a greater threat to the use of the road than our deep, slender northern penetration could possibly constitute for them. You cannot cease to be conscious of the danger • along this corridor, which is both the front line and supply line of the British 2nd Army It is a front line facing both east and west. Over 50 miles of the corridor wave after wave of transport planes fly with supplies for the airborne troops around Arnhem.’’

ALLIED GAIN AND LOSS (Rec 8.30) LONDON, Sept. 25. S.H.A.E.F. reports: East of Deurne we advanced another seven or eight miles. Farther west, a German counter-attack has forced Canadians to withdraw from their Lochtenberg bridgehead across the Antwerp-Turn-out canal. British troops, operating with Canadians, advanced in the vicinity of Saint Leonard on the canal about 11 miles west of Turnout.

CORRIDOR RE-OPENED REPEATEDLY.

(Fj2C. 8.30) LONDON, Sept. 26. The Germans have several times cut the Allied supply corridor running northward from Eindhoven. Il has never been out of action, nowever, for more than three or four hours and the movement of supplies has not been seriously hindered. The position in the corridor is nowhere critical. It is long and narrow, and it cannot be lined with Allied troops. Accordingly, German forces, from time to time, sever it, but they have •not the forces necessary to cut it in strength, or for any length of time. Berlin radio on Monday night admitted the Allies succeeded in reopening the Nijmegen corridor and widened it east and west of Eindhoven. _ A S'.H.A.E.F. report says:—On Monday night heroic British airborne forces, with the limited reinforcements which pushed across the Neder Rhine, were still locked in what is possibly the fiercest fighting of the campaign on the Western Front. British, American and Polish troops of General Dempsen’s 2nd Army were then thrusting northwards against time. There is every indication that the Germans will do their utmost to hold the Arnhem gateway to the Rhur and the Westphalian Plain. The Germans are aware that the Allies need to advance only 30 miles northward from Arnhem to leave the whole German Army remaining in Belgium and Holland, west of the Zuider Zee only one escape route —a narrow 19mile causeway north of the Zuider Zee between North Holland and Friesland.

British tanks and infantry: hurled the counter-attacking Germans’ from the Nijmegen corridor, and supplies and .reinforcements on Mondaj 7 night were again rolling north to the Arnhem area.

British armoured columns east and west of Eindhoven widened the corridor to 16 miles. They are fighting at Middelbeers, nine miles west, of Eindhoven, and Helmond, six miles north. The main strength of Dempsey’s spearhead captured a village 61 miles south-west of. Arnhem on Sunday evening, when more reinforcements went over the Neder Rhine. It appeared a trickle of reinforcements continued to cross in darkness. The airborne troops, however, are unquestionably getting tired. German resistance in the area of Elst is definitely slackening. German paratroops moving south-eastward from north of Best towards Eindhoven made a serious thrust and gained two miles before theyj were thrown back. On the eastern flank, the British are exploiting their capture of Demme. Th e Allies entered Turnout after the enemy had withdrawn from the Escaut Canal towards the Antwerp-Turnout Canal, which is described as possibly the last decent line before Waal. Patrols of Dempsey’s forces have reached the Polish troops on the south bank of the Upper Rhine before Arnhem. Over thirty German tanks, dozens of self-propelled guns, and scores of vehicles were destroyed. Infantrymen attacked major cross roads of the town.

Hew a band of paratroopers fought for three days and three nights when surrounded at the end of the bridge over the Neder Rhin e at Arnhem is told by) a British United Press correspondent, Richard McMillan, who describes the fighting as “a glorious, furious and forlorn action in which our paratroopers finally went down fighting under waves of German attackers.”

Rocket planes have been hammering considerable German transport movement northwards from West Holland, through the 25 miles gap between Arnhem and the Zuider Zee. Allied planes attacked many trains, leaving the German sack between the sea and Dempsey’s corridor. Typhoons and Mustangs in a few hours shot up 30 trains the majority of which were heading for North Germany. Others were travelling towards Arnhem.

Typhoons are also giving hardpressed airborne troops close support, sending streams of rockets into German gun and mortar positions 150 yards "from the airborne troops.

ARNHEM DEMOLISHED LONDON, Sept 26 A Berlin radio war reporter said: Arnhem, which was a centre of violent fighting during the British airborne landing, is now a heap of ashen and rubble. This, the richest town in the Netherlands, offers a scene of utter desolation. Houses are burned out, and gardens and parks are stud-

ded with slit trenches of British paratroops. ALLIED RAID AT DUTCH PORT LONDON, Sept. 26. More than 70. rocket and torpedofiring R.A.F. Beaufighters, escorting Mustangs and Tempests, on Monday evening attacked from sea-level through intense flak some twenty enemv vessels in a heavily defended anchorage at Denhelder, a most likely escape port for German forces trapped in Holland by the Second Army’s advance. A merchant vessel was left ablaze, and a minesweeper blew up. Another was left burning furiously. Three tugs and four trawlers were set on fire, .and a fuel barge left smoking. Most of the other vessels were raked by cannon fire. Gun postions and radio installations on each side of the anchorage were also attacked. A building, probably an ammunition store, blew up. • Several other shore targets were also hit. Three Beaufighters are missing. RHINE VALLEY BOMBED (Rec. 9.50) LONDON, Sept 26 Allied heavy bombers on Monday hammered marshalling yards and other targets in the Rhine Valley, striking a heavy blow at German transport routes feeding supplies and reinforcements to the zone now under attack by the British Second Army and the American First Army. GERMAN LOOTING (Rec. 7.30) LONDON, Sept 26 A “Daily Express” correspondent says:—About a dozen German trains which were stranded in a railway yard at Nymegen are full of loot. There was one whole train packed with parcels which German soldiers were sending home. A fantastic collection of things spilled out when some were opened. Parcels addressed Fraulein this or that contained a gross of curtain- rings, a dozen bicycle pumps and a half a dozen boxes ot cut-throat razors. There were dental instruments, cases of hair oil, sets of engineering tools and boxes of aspirins. The idea simply was to grab everything, no one of two things but by the gross. Some Germans had raided bookshops, and they bundled up fifty copies of the same book ano sent them off from a pure lust of possession.

SIEGE OF CALAIS LONDON, Sept. 25 An assault on Monday on Calais was made by one of the greatest aircraft concentrations of the war. Heavy bombers and rocket-firing Typhoons dropped shattering loans against the port’s steel and concrete defences, and 300 Halifaxes pounded Calais with high explosives, dropping nearly 1,300 tons. Canadians took the Fortress Escalles, four miles south-west of Calais, and stoimcu oig guns. When infantry arrived at outer defences they found the Germans dejectedly sitting on the ground. The Germans had attempted to surrender to the flail tanks, but they were too busy to take prisoners. The capture of Calais is expecetd to take some time. The Germans have field artillery and 88 m.m. guns, while such batteries as survived at Cap Gris Nez were also brought: into action. About 20,000 civilians who remain in Calais were herded in the southern part of the town. They refused to leave because they feared being caught between two fires.

AMERICAN IST. ARMY SETS UP BIG BARRAGE LONDON, Sept. 25 The American Ist Army, from the Aachen area southward to Luxembourg, is building up its armoured strength. It opened a devastating barrage with 10-inch guns and heavy howitzers. Two towns have'been sec on fire, and among those hit are Juich and Duren, midway between Aachen and Cologne. A vital supply line deep in Germany is now being shelled by the heaviest guns. The spectacular barrage has been kept up hour after hour against all conceivable targets. Among the whole Ist Army front 240 m.m. howitzers and 150 m.m. guns are being directed upon targets extending more than half-way to the Rhine and the German border. Over-worked railways bringing up supplies have been shelled.

A village used by the enemy as a petrol supply dump, went up in flames. Another village similarly employed was badly damaged. Enemy artillery activity has been increased. An enemy artillery spotting plane similar to the Piper Cub made its appearance over the battle front. In the vicinity of Aachen Germans made counter-attacks and again some miles further south with a small force. Against a well dug-in position they made no progress. Behind the Siegfried Line, into which Americans have made an appreciable dent, community digging proceeds apace, apparently to make some form, of switch line to link up with the Siegfried. First Army forces have started expanding eastward from the Stoiberg battle field, others south oi Stolberg are widening the breaches of the Siegfried Line. German coun-ter-attacks in the areas of Aachen and Prum have been considerably weaker.

THE MOSELLE SECTOR LONDON, Sept. 25 General Patton’s Army seems to have removed all obstacles against movements towards the Siegfried Line, and it has taken the iniative. The Germans lost 21 of the 30 tanks they used in unsuccessful counter-attacks north-west of Dieuze. Signs of resistance in the vicinity of Bassarat are decreasing. French made advances five miles north or the town. Epinal fell to the United States infantrymen of the 7th Army as a result of a fast outflanking movement. The enemy in the Metz area are still strongly entrenched on the west side of the Moselle River and south of Metz, says a S.H.A.E.F. communique Our troops in this area are continuing to meet strong opposition. Allied forces cleared Layr, eight miles north-east of Nancy and are clearing Bois de Faulx and Foret de Champenous. East of Nancy our units in the Meurthe Valley made further gains in Foret de Mondon north-west of Bassarat.

GERMANS REPULSED ON THE MOSELLE (Rec. 10.10) LONDON, Sept. 26 A Reuter correspondent with tne United States Third Army says: German tanks and infantry _ twice on Monday counter-attacked in the vicinity of Marsal, four .miles southwest of Dieuze. Americans repulsed both attacks and the Germans used' about thirty tanks. Apparently they aimed to take high ground in this area. Americans have repulsed, another German counter-attack ten miles north-west of Nancy. Bad weather had hampered operations elsewhere on the Moselle front. REDUCTION IN ENEMY STRENGTH (Rec. 10. Q). LONDON. Sept. 26 Informed American military sources have estimated that Germany, which had sixty-two divisions on the Western Front on D. Day, is now reduced to twenty-eight or thirty divisions in the west, each numbering from eight to ten thousand men. They are opposed by more than thrity Allied divisions at full strength.