Pattons Big Guns Pound Metz Fort

Northern Advocate, 14 September 1944, Page 3

Pattons Big Guns Pound Metz Fort

LONDON, September 13.

The tempo of General Patton’s thrusts against German defences east of the Moselle is being stepped up, with American artillery concentrating the main power against Metz itself, says Reuter’s correspondent at United States 3rd Army headquarters. More troops and armour are flooding across the Moselle to build up the 3rd Army’s punch for an assoult through AlsaceLorraine. American artillery is carrying out tests against recaptured Maginot Line forts in preparation for bombardments of the Siegfried Line. Still Shelling Antwerp

More German counter-attacks against the British 2nd Army were thrown back in Gheel area, says the Exchange Telegraph correspondent with the 2nd Army. The Germans used battlegroups supoprted by a few tanks, but never progressed. Allied planes continue to take toll of barges and other craft which the Germans are using to evacuate troops from the bridgehead on the south bank of the Scheldt. The 2nd Army yesterday took 65G3 prisoners.

The Germans f still are shelling Antwerp from big guns mounted on trains. They seem to be concentrating most of the shells against the' Zoological Gardens where German prisoners and collaborators are interned.

It is officially announced that the American 9th Army is in the field in France.

Hitler has proclaimed a state of siege along the whole of the western German frontier, according to Moscow radio quoting a report from Zurich. Internees Released

The American 3rd Army has captured Nauf Chateau, says the Associated Press. The 3rd Army has also liberated 500 Americans, mostly women, and some men and women of British and other nationalities from a German internment camp at Cittel, 18 miles south of Neuf Chateau. The 3rd Army has now captured 80,300 prisoners and it is estimated to have killed 24,000 and wounded 70,300. A correspondent of the British United Press in Germany says that the first penetration oL Germany in strength was achieved with only one casualty. He was an American lieutenant \Gio was wounded by a sniper. Americans from Roetgen are standing within rifle range of German fortifications but the only German fire so far has been from anti-aircraft guns trying to keep Allied fighter-bombers at bay. Reuter’s correspondent in Germany says that the Americans on September 13 dug in on the heights overlooking Aachen after fighting into the outposts of the Siegfried Line against surprisingly weak opposition. The Germans mounted machine-guns on one bomb crater on the road from Roetgen from where they fought a desperate rearguard action but the Germans generally retreated before advance, and American infantry patrols cleared the town. German Guns Silent

From well camouflaged positions in the Luxembourg hills, American guns tonight are firing across the River Our (a tributary of the Moselle separating the Duck from Luxembourg) says Reuter’s correspondent with the United States 3rd Army. They are laying down the first sustained artillery barrage on German soil. Pillboxes and bunkers in the Siegfried Line received direct hits, also’ installations in small German towns, including a large barracks. A column of vehicles, apparently withdrawing eastward, also has been peppered. Nbt one German gun replied. It is stated at Supreme Headquarters that the Ist 3rd and 7th Armies have taken prisoner 320,000 since D Day. The 9th Army is commanded by Lieut.-General W. H. Simpson.