SEVEN TOWNS

Grey River Argus, 10 November 1944, Page 5

SEVEN TOWNS

FREED BY U.l 3rd. ARMY north-east of nancy Progress in Maas Sector (Rec. 12.10.) LONDON, Nov. 9. To-day’s communique from Allied Supreme Headquarters says: Only a few pockets of resistance are holding out on Walcheren Island. Mopping up continues. There has been bitter fighting for the Moerdijk bridge approaches. We penetrated concrete defences, and made some advance in the face of fierce opposition. We have driven out the enemy forces from .an area east of the town. Our forces in the Hurtgen Forest sector are attacking against strong enemy pressure, and gaining ground slowly in an area south of Vossenack. We made gains south-east of the town of Hurtgen against very heavy resistance. West of Schmidt we are mopping up enemy pockets. Our units in Seille Valley have made gains north-east of Nancy, after an artillery preparation yesterday morning. They have freed the towns of Aulnois, Maills, Fresnes, Malaucourt, Jalaucourt, Mancourt and Bezang, .in an arc 13 to 15 miles north-east and east of Nancy. We cleared enemy forces from Migneville, six miles north of Baccarat. We made gains in a wooded area west of Saint Die. Several enemy counter-attacks were repulsed in the Vosges Mountains, south-west of Gerardmer. New Offensive 1 BY AMERICAN THIRD ARMY. LONDON. November 8.. The American Third Army, this morning, launched an attack between Metz, and Nancy and advanced about one mile. They crossed the Seille River at several places and liberated several villages. At several points in the area of Rouves, seven miles due east of Pont a Mousson, and liberated four small villages in their stride. The objective of the attack is to achieve a general improvement of the 3rd. Army positions, and the scale of the operations has not yet been revealed. . The Americans attacking on a 25mile front captured Nomency, Moyenvie, and 11 other towns, in an advance up to three miles. Very bad weather deprived the troops of the support of heavy bombers, but divebombers were active, and a preliminary bombardment is believed to have included large scale use of rockets * Fighter-bombers supported the attack, which opened .after a heavy artillery barrage. The German News Agency stated that the United States Seventh Army reinforced by formations from the Third Army, launched a major offensive aimed against the Saar Basin, with the by-passing and encirclement of the Metz bridgehead as the first objective. The German News Agency’s correspondent Guenthere Weber, from the west front headquarters said: "The Allies’ great offensive against Germany has started.- Patton’s Third Army in streaming rain this morning launched a major offensive between Metz and Luneville. A thousand Allied guns put up a drumfire attack launched by . six infantry and several armoured divisions. German quarters are sure Patton’s offensive is only the first of a great Autumn offensive against the Reich, and that the battle will spread in all sectors of the front within a few hours.” U.S. FIRST ARMY. WITHDRAWAL NEAR AACHEN. LONDON, November 8. Reuter’s correspondent with the American First Army, says: The Americans fell back a few hundred yards further in the Hutgen Forest area, south-east of Aachen. In bitter fighting, Germans lost tanks. Thev are estimated to have suffered 2,400 casualties in the past few days. Dive-bombers attacked German positions in clear weather. There is still fighting- in the small town of Vossencak. Two enemy attacks have been beaten off near the town of Schmidt, wheih is still held by the .Germans. •Troops of the American First Army fighting south-east of Aachen against continued savage artillery fire and repeated counter-attacks, were forced, last night, to fall back slight l -” m the Schmidt sector to high ground two miles north-west of Schmidt, says the Exchange Telegraph Agency’s correspondent. The Americans, today, opened a new fight for this salient. The Americans have made progress in the other parts pf the chm;dt sector. (Rec. 5.5.) LONDON, Noy. 8. Snow and slet are now falling m Hurtgen Forest. There are still furious German counter-attacks, which are forcing the Americans, back, says a British United Press correspondent. An Exchange Telegraph Agency correspondent says: “American infantry have been forced to withdraw from Konnerscheidt. DUTCH MAINLAND SECTOR. LONDON, November 8. Reuter’s correspondent with the Canadian First Army reports that Poles to-day launched an .attack to clean up three hundred fanaticallyfighting Germans who are pinned against the end of the blown-up Moerdijk bridge. There is no change in the Allies’ nosition on the eastern side of the Dutch salient, states a report from Supreme Headquarters. We are still on the outskirts of Meijel. while the Americans are see-sawing in the Hurtgen forest area where they are consolidating their holdings beating off small counter-attacks. The Germans are building up in the Schmidt area. Third Army activity was restricted to patrolling. Reivewing the operations on the British-Canadian front since Canadians crossed the Leopold Canal, on October 6, a spokesman at General Montgomery's Headquarters said: "We cleared the Scheldt approaches to Antwerp, liberated an area twenty miles deep on a 40-miles front, took 38.000 to 40,000 Germans prisoner, inflicted perhaps the same number of casualties, and destroyed the German 64th. Division south of the Scheldt and the 70th. Division on Walcheren.” In south-western Holland a small isolated German force is still carrying on a hopeless struggle .at Moerdijk, near the mouth of the Maas. This is the last German pocket south of the river. Behind the enemy troops are the wrecked bridges across the Maas estuary. On Walcheren Island, there is slight German resistance in the northern part of the island the reof which is in , Allied hands. These Germans are also in a hopeless nosition.

Allied troops, to-day. captured Vrouw'en n older. in Northern Walcheren. the front otherwise being quiet throughout Holland.,