TO SAARBOURG

Grey River Argus, 25 November 1944, Page 5

TO SAARBOURG

FRENCH ADVANCE HEAVY NORTH FIGHTING Allied Gains and Losses [Aust. & N.Z. Press Association] (Rec. 12.38) LONDON, Nov. 24. Friday’s communique from Allied Supreme Headquarters says l : Allied forces have further progressed in the Venlo sector, where our units, are within three miles of th e town of Venlo. North of the Helmond-Venlo railway we advanced about one mile over very difficult country, and have taken Met.rik and Horst. Our forces south of this railway gained about on e thousand yards on a five thousand yards front. There is bitter fighting in the area of Hoven and Beeck. There the enemy is resisting fiercely. • We have repulsed small counter-at-tacks in the Gereonsweiler area, north-west of Julich. There very slow progress' is being made towards Koslar and Bourteim. Our forces north of Weisweiler are fighting in Lohn and Putzlohn. Other elements are west, south, and southeast of Weisweiler, and gains have been made towards the town. ' Bitter fighting still continues in the Hurtgen forest. There our forces are slowly gaining against very stubborn resistance. Our armoured forces east of Metz have reached Johannsrohrbach. Our infantry, is in the vicinity of Leyweiler. We have repulsed a counter-attack near Fremersdorf. Other armoured forces of ours, farther south, have reached Finstinger. Our troops, after making a break through the Saverne Gap, have reached Strasbourg. They have freed many, towns on the northern Alsace Plain. Over 3000 prisoners have been taken, including two generals. Much material has also been captured in a rapid advance. Unfavourable weather has slowed our progress in the southern Vosges and the Belfort Gap area, but limited gains have been made. The weather has severely curtailed air operations.

FRENCH IN STRASBOURG. LONDON, November 23. French tanks entered Strasbourg this> morning, stated the Paris radio. The German forces in the southern sector of the Western Front face a serious threat to their escape routes, as the result of the Allies’ swift advance in the Vosges country, say the Exchange Telegraph Agency SHAEF correspondent. They now have the grim alternative of trying to get back across the Rhine or fighting a' way out to near Strasbourg. Things are moving so fast on this front that many enemy units tied up in the passes may only learn their danger fWhen it i& too late to extricate themselves. Prisoners captured at Saverne yesterday were of low category. Some have been in the army only four weeks. Others stated that they were without food for four to six days.

French troops are back in Strasbourg after four years'. The Paris radio, giving this official news, played the old French marching song made famous in the Franco-Prussian war: “You’ll Never Get Alsace or Lorraine.”

Correspondents at SHAEF received the following official announcement: “Advancing French armoured forces of the American 7th Army a're fighting in the outskirts of Strasbourg. Elements of General le Clerc’s French Armoured Division formed the spearhead of the spectacular advance of the American 15th Corps. Resistance is reported to. be light.”

It was le Clerc’s- Armoured Division which took Paris.

The Daily Express’s Paris correspondent says that German positions on the Southern Rhine front were reported to-night to be “melting like enow”. Other F'rench armour—units of de Tassigny’s Ist French Army—which are less than 40 miles south of Strasbourg, are racing north between the Rhine bank and the Vosges foothills. . French tanks 1 which broke through the Belfort Gap and swung north are now reported to be beyond Colmard. The Allied pincers around Balcke’s army in the Vosges are closing rapidly. An American Major-General who has taken a leading part in the break-through to Strasbourg, said tonight that the back of the German Vosges line was broken. “The enemy is completely disorganised. Prisoners said that all the German troops had been told to abandon equipment and break up into small groups and get to the Reich as fast as possible. The Germans have been jettisoning equipment in such quantities that it would take a month to count.” The Paris radio says that a vast manoeuvre to envelop the Vosges is in progress. Its consequences will be serious for the enemy. The German forces which are taking to'the .evacuation roads towards Germany are on the point of being cut off by the rapid advance of the Allies emerging through the Saverne Gap. One estimate places Balcke’s trapped forcesat 50,000.

Reuter’s Basle correspondent says that the Germans in south-west Alsace are preparing to withdraw from France acro'se the Rhine into Baden. They overnight erected landing stages at Huningen, north of Basle, and are now ferrying across. Numerous dismantled flak batteries make it' evident they are about to abandon the Huningen bridgehead. . The German News Agency admits the German casualties were heavy in the fighting in the western approaches to the Central Vosges, and also heavy losses at Belfort. One captain walked into the French lines with three men, who were all that was left of an entire regiment. The enemy is now so completely off balance that he cannot start any real counter-attacks. There was no resistance on the road to Strasbourg. AMERICAN ARMIES LINK UP. LONDON, November 23. Reuter’s correspondent with the American Third Army, reports that Third Army .forces made a fourmiles advance to link up with the American Seventh Army troops in the vicinity of Sarrebourg. Third Army tanks farther north advanced 23 miles to within 15 miles southwest of Sarrbrucken. Third Army Armour in Germany gained a mile and entered Kessingen, nine miles north-east of Merzig and 33 miles inside Germany. American armour in this sector now controls over thirty square miles of German soil. Activity in the 7th Army area hae been confined to closing up behind the forward elements, where, further south, French armed reconnaissance fortes reached Battenheim, i four miles north of Mulhouse. At<Wtemnting to hit back south-east of feggßelfort. the enemy suffered' casualM ties. l and lost several hundred men as prisoners. w United States 7th Army, batga tering through the Vosges passes to- ® wards Strasbourg, captured Saverne

after an advance of seven miles. The Americans are now through the mountains on the flat country leading to the Rhine-Marne Canal. American forces are through the Vosges Mountains and were last reported 26 miles from Strasbourg. The French forces which struck north from the Belfort area and liberated Mulhouse are now pushing north up the Rhine Valley along good roads. They were last reported somewhere between Mulhouse and Colmar, the next big town to the north.

A 8.8. C. correspondent says that the Germans can have little hope of keeping the Allies at arm’s length from Strasbourg. Alreadj' they have only three crossings of the Rhine below the - city. I GERMAN LOSSES (Rec. 6.30) LONDON, Nov. 23. Three German radio spokesmen within six hours referred to considerable German losses on the Western Front. GERMAN PRISONERS IN SOUTH. (Rec. 1.14). LONDON, November 24. A British United Press correspondent with the Sixth Army Group says: All German resistance in flat lands west of Strasbourg appears to have ended. Three thousand prisoners taken in the last three dayis include General von Gilsa, Commander of the German 89th Corps, and Major-Gen-eral Bruhn, Commander of the 553rd Infantry Brigade. NORTHERN SECTOR. (Rec. 6.30). LONDON, November 23. Berlin radio commentator, Captain Sertorius, says: Operations between th e Maas River at Venlo and the eastern fringe of the Hurtgen forest are more and more amalgamating into a single great battle. Its further extension into the area of Nijmegen can be expected at any hour. BRITISH TAKE HORST. LONDON, November 23. The British troops' have pushed 2000 yards north of S'evenum and captured Horst, seven miles northwest of Venlo, states Reuter’s- correspondent at 21st Army Group Headquarters; Horst, though only, a hamlet, is important as a junction of seven roads. Its capture means we have sliced right into the remaining German pocket west of the Maas. Describing the weather conditions, Reuter’s- correspondent with the British Second Army says the troops advancing in the Geilenkirchen area slogged through fields 2ft deep with water. The Tommies say they would rather fight Jerry on dry ground than chase him through cold, dreary muck.

The enemy’s dragon’s-teeth defences and concentrations of road blocks, mines, anti-tank ditches- and artillery fire' are not preventing the Allies from pushing the Germans slowly back into the Reich, says Reuter’s correspondent at the 21st Army Group Headquarters. The British, yesterday, captured Hoven, bn the left flank of Geilenkirchen, in what is described as a most gallant successful operation in which they beat off three vicious counter-attacks. The Americans south-east of Hoven are still fighting for the villages of Wurm and Beeck. Supreme courage under deadly fire and bulldog determination carried the British troops to victory against the frenzied German opposition in the battle for Hoven, says the Exchange Telegraph Agency correspondent with the British 2nd Army. “The battle raged for hours and was on the fiercest and bloodiest scale yet fought between the British and Germans on German soil. The British were ordered to capture Hoven, but on approaching the village they were subjected to deadly artillery, mortar and machine-gun fire. So fierce was this fire that the British had to reform ranks three times before being able to break through the defences. While s-till under a terrific curtain of fire, they drove into the village, fanned out through the streets, pushing the Germans from the defences. The Germans started a savage formidable counter-attack against the village immediately after the British occupation, but after' bitter hand-to-hand fighting in which bloody loss-es were given and taken, the attack was repulsed. Other lesser attacks followed in the afternoon and evening in drenching rain, but the Tommies stuck grimly to their posts. This gallant band of British soldiers were this .morning still in possession of Hoven.”

The Associated Press correspondent describes the fire met by the British entering Hoven a's one of the greatest shell-made infernoes of this war. HEAVY GERMAN COUNTERATTACKS (Rec. 6.30) LONDON, Nov. 23. At Allied Supreme Headquarters a spokesman said: There are grim slogging bouts north and east of Geilenkirchen in the heart of the Siegfried belt. It has rained hard since dawn. The Germans have continued at a heavy tempo their counter-attacks. It is satisfactory that w'e . have not given ground. A British United Press correspondent at Geilenkirchen says: “Some Germans came from pillboxes untouched by shellfire or bombs to give themselves up. We are levering a way through the Siegfried Line, and some secondary defences. We probed around Geilenkirchen. Defences were found incomplete. There were stretches of anti-tank ditches unfinished, with shovels and barrows lying about, abandoned by the labour’ force. HOVEN RECAPTURED BY GERMANS. (Rec. 1.14). LONDON. November 24. Reuter’s correspondent with the British 2nd Army reports: German forces, after heavy counter-attacks, have recaptured Hoven, north-east of Geilenkirchen. German forces in the Geilenkirchen area are now attacking with four panzer divisions, two independent battalions-, and two or three infantry divisions.

U.S. FIRST ARMY. LONDON, November 22. Steady progress is being made at Eschweiler by the American First (Army troops, who advanced about 2000 yards to th e outskirts of Eschweiler, while south and south-west of Bokl have been cleared. Two more counter-attacks in this sector were repulsed. Progress is slow through Hurtgen Forest. American Ist Army troops, making a two-mile advance in a night attack, have reached the outskirts of Weisweiler. says Reuter’s correspondent in Germany. A hand-to-hand battle was fought in the pitchblack darkness. South-east of Weisweiler the Americans threw off two early-morning counter-attacks. U.S. Ist ARMY’LOSE HILL. (Rec. 1.30). LONDON, November 23. A, British United Press correspondent with the American First Army sayp: The Germans are hitting back west of Duren. They have now thrown in four attacks’ in 24 hours in the neighbourhood of Weisweiler; which Ove been repulsed. But the American forces have had to give up a -hill near Weisweiler. The American Third Army spent a quiet Thanksgiving Day. AMERICAN 9th. ARMY. LONDON, November 23. Probably some of the stiffest re-

sistance facing the Allied armies on the whole Western Front is in the 9th Army sector and east 'of Aix-la-Chapelle, says a correspondent at Supreme Headquarters. The 9th Army troops are finding the opposition particularly grim round about Lohn in the vicinity of Bourheim, but in spite of this they advanced- nearly a mile north-east of Lohn to Erberch and are mopping up stray German groups on the wa'yt to Julich. Coun-ter-attacks were repulsed and four tanks raining direct fire on our troops were knocked out. U.S. THIRD ARMY. IN SIEGFRIED LINE. LONDON, November 23. To the north-west the 3rd Army has pushed a .little deeper into the Siegfried Line approaches to the Saar. One report puts them within two miles of Merzig, on the Saar River. Elements of the 3rd Army operating to the north of the sector’ are being subjected to artillery concentrations, presumably from Siegfried Line positions. Lower down, northeast of Nancy, gains of from two to four miles have been made on a 25miles front. In the Metz area one of five forts holding out was taken. Over 1600 prisoners were captured in this sector during the 24 hours to midnight, making the 3rd Army’s total 123,000. HEAVY POLISH CASUALTIES. IN ADVANCE FROM NORMANDY TO HOLLAND. LONDON, November 23. Some thousands of Poles were killed and wounded in the advance of the Polish Armoured Division from Caen through Belgium and France to Moerdijk, says the British United Press correspondent at Polish Headquarters in Holland. The Commander of the Polish Division declared that not a single Pole had fallen into the hands of the Germans alive. “The Poles daren’t be captured. Ii they are, they, know there wul be only one result—death. When things looked black for the Poles they either fought their way out or kept hitting against the Germans until they were all killed.” , The Commander added: We captured the German Commander,-.who sneered and said that m two horns I would b e his prisoner. Two passed, then three and four. All tnc German Commander saw .was a long line of crack S'.S. men being brought in. He covered his face with his hands and wept. The Germans fought hard against us, because they were fed with the propaganda that wp. kill all prisoners. But since D Day we have captured 13.000 Germans. which is several times our casualties, and killed and wounded thousands more. We soon hope to bi marching into Germany. I hope the neople who flattened Warsaw will have all their towns treated like Aachen. It is the only wa'y to teach the Germans that war doesn t pay.