Fly White Flags In First German Town Entered

Northern Advocate, 14 September 1944, Page 3

Fly White Flags In First German Town Entered

4Received 1 p.m. )

LONDON, September 13.

AMERICAN TANKS WHICH YESTERDAY MORNING SWEPT n ACROSS THE BORDER INTO THE ALMOST DESERTED TOWNSHIP OF ROETGEN, IN GERMANY, SEVEN MILES EAST OF EUPEN, ARE NOW TACKLING MORE FORMIDABLE GERMAN DEFENCES, SAYS REUTER’S CORRESPONDENT INSIDE GERMANY.

He adds that tanks reached Roetgen in a blaze of small-arms fire. Tanks rumbling into Germany found only a handful of frightened, but not unhappy citizens. Roetgen is the first German village to be captured, and it was not difficult. The handful of people remaining during the battle for the township, stayed hidden. White flags flew from windows, indicating that whatever the German army might do there would be no resistance from citizens.

Tanks began pouring shells against German installations in the hills behind the town less than 15 minutes after the first units entered at 4.50 p.m..

An Associated Press correspondent says Americans quickly broke through the primary defences in the Roetgen area and now are assaulting anti-tank obstacles and pill-boxes just beyond the town. American self-propelled 105 m.m. guns, firing from German soil, are supporting the attack. The Germans are defending obstacles and pill-boxes much more strongly. It is too early to draw conclusions, but resistance so far has been less than expected. There are many indications that the headlong German retreat, begun in Belgium, is continuing to the Rhine.

The German News Agency says the Americans captured an outlying Siegfried Line fort east of Venders.

Advance Across Moselle

General Patton’s armoured spearheads across the Moselle today advanced under fire eight miles in two hours, says an Associated Press correspondent. The Americans flushed the Germans from woods into a rain, of bombs from waiting American planes. The Americans outflanked Pont Amousson, which was a Gerntan river defence bastion. Armoured columns 'swung into high-geared action for the first time in a fortnight after infantry had smashed the Germans’ one great attempt to seal off the breach in the Moselle defences between *Pont Amousson and Nancy. German tanks and infantry, attacking from a point just south of Pont Amousson in the darkness of eariy morning, over-ran an American command post and wounded the commander. Infantry, using Bazookas, knocked out eight German tanks and then cut off the attacking force, faking most of them prisoner.

The Americans attacked at dawn, quickly expanding the battle area until it w T as two miles wide and eight miles deep. Meanwhile, more tanks, guns and all the components of a striking force flowed steadily across the river through bursting shells, and passed over a ridge beyond the river. More than 100 German vehicles were forced from the woods and waiting planes pounced on them. An American armoured column added gunfire to the attack. Slaughter of the enemy column went on until it seemed the entire wood was on fire. American tanks did not tarry. They pushed on out of sight, many miles from the river. Eve Of Battle

It is the eve of the battle of Germany, ancl there is a fateful quiet on the Western Front, says a correspondent at Supreme Headquarters. Tonight there is practically no news of Allied advances along the entire 300mile line, but behind the scenes American, British and Canadian armies are building up for the great liberating battle which will ,and must, soon develop. Meanwhile, the German command is parrying Allied thrusts and staging local -holding actions and counter-offensives to gain time and prepare for the great blow shortly to be directed at German soil. Stiff obstacles have yet to be overcome by the Allies. Net works of waterways have to be traversed, particularly in the Low Countries, the defences of the West Wall must be surmounted and difficult enclosed country, which lies between certain areas of advance and some of the key cities of the Reich, must be penetrated. A counter-attack, which demonstrated the sensitiveness of the German command to the dangerous proximity of these forces in the south, 'launched against American 3rd Army positions on the Moselle in the neigh-* bourhood of Corny, south-west of Metz, has been repulsed. In the north General Dempsey’s 2nd British Army troops apparently are building up for further drives in strength following victory in the Albert Canal battle and the Canadian Ist Army is steadily clearing enemy pockets of resistance on the Scheldt, north of Bruges and Ghent. Enemy garrisons defending Le Havre, when they surrendered to British troops, were found to be very much shaken from the effects of Allied bombing and a naval bombardment by 15-inch guns of the Warspitc and Erebus.

Large Forces Over Border

Large forces of tanks and infantry are now over the Germany frontier, or crossing it along a wide stretch south of Aachen, says a correspondent of the British United Press at Supreme Headquarters. In the north the Germans, after withdrawing from the Albert Canal line, are now deploying along the eastern bank pf Escaut Canal, over which the British already hold a bridgehead.