ANOTHER CROSSING

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 73, 23 February 1945, Page 2

ANOTHER CROSSING

3.45 P.M. EDITION

AMERICANS OVER SAAR. COLLAPSE oFrESISTANCE. (N.Z. Press Association.—Copyright.) (Rec. 1.10 p.in.) LONDON, Ecb. 22. General Patton’s troops have forced a second crossing of the Saar River south of Saarburg, says the Associated Press correspondent with the Third Army. Following the capture of Saarburg enemy resistance collapsed in the triangle between the Aloselle and the Saar Rivers with the Germans pulling back across the Saar to hill positions.

The Third Army along its 50-mile front advanced another two miles in places and captured six more towns. The British United Press correspondent with the Third Army says that the American crossings are two and a half and five miles south of Saarburg. Third Army units crossed under cover of fog and took the Germans by surprise. There was no opposition. Reuter’s correspondent with the Third Army says the Americans arc now across the Saar at points along a 25-mile stretch from its junction with the Moselle to Saarlautern. American armour is on the heights under a mile from Konz.

The Associated Press correspondent with the Seventh Army says the Americans have cleared two-thirds of Eorbach and have crossed the main Saarbrucken highway, which runs through the centre of the town.

British and Canadian forces held their line firmly today against German counter-attacks and little change is reported along General Crcrar’s front, says the British United Press correspondent at General Montgomery’s headquarters. The Germans are continuing to stiffen their defences and are putting up fantastic opposition along the front between the Maas and the Rhine. They launched a vicious counter-attack south-east of Gocli where the Scots had pushed across the Goch-Udcm railway, but the Allied line held. They tried the same tactics in the neighbourhood of Blijenbeek Castle, where they made some headway. sVith the appearance oti the RhineMaas front of the Lehr Panzer Division, which fought in Saarbruckcn in November and the Ardennes in December, General Crerar is now confronted with elements of two panzer and one grenadier divisions and tour par&troop and three infantry divisions. General Mantcuffel, broadcasting to the German nation tonight, said: “We are on the eve of a grandscale British and American offensive, or for that matter we are already witnessing its inception.” NOT REAL DRIVE.

Commenting on the progress on the Western Front, the Associated Press correspondent at Shaef says that neither General Crerar’s slow gains down the north flank of the Sieglricd Line nor the Third Army’s and Seventh Army’s positional advances are on the scale of any real drive for clinching a victory. The greatest potential assault weight on the whole Western Front is between them —on the British Second and the American First and Ninth Army fronts. They are still awaiting their hour as the river barriers slowly recede, ft seems increasingly likely that a full-scale battle cannot be expected until the spring. Reuter’s correspondent with the Ninth Army reports increased German ground and air activity on the fronts facing the Ninth and I‘irst Armies. German bombers last night attacked front-line positions along the Poor River in the heaviest raid since January 1.