Stiff Opposition, But Increasing Hold On Vital Dutch Salient

Northern Advocate, 30 September 1944, Page 5

Stiff Opposition, But Increasing Hold On Vital Dutch Salient

(Received 11 a.m.)

LONDON, September 29

THE GERMANS HAVE BECOME MORE AGGRESSIVE ON 1 ALL SECTORS OF THE BRITISH 2ND ARMY FRONT, SAYS REUTER’S CORRESPONDENT. THE THREE COUNTER-ATTACKS THEY THREW IN EAST OF NIJMEGEN WERE ALL BEATEN.

The Germans last night attempted to throw a bridgehead across the Neder Rhine near Heveadorn, five miles west of Arnhem, under cover of darkness. They are now being forced back in very fierce fighting. The Canadians advanced two to three miles across the Turnhout Canal.

Another Reuter correspondent says that General Dempsey’s armour and artillery are striking a succession of heavy blows on both sides of the main corridor stretching northward to the Neder Rhine. Long columns protected by mobile ack-ack guns line the main roads through Holland.. The whole 2nd Army is filtering into new hard-won ground around Nijmegen and into a box between the Waal and Neder Rhine.

The British corridor between Nijmegen and Elst and right up to the south bank of the Neder Rhine west of Arnhem, every hour is becoming stronger, thicker and more densely populated with men, guns and tanks.

A correspondent of the British United Press says that the British are steadily increasing their hold on the triangle between the Waal and the Neder Rhine east of Elst, and are pushing out westward in a tough fighting solid wedge.

Allied-held country now extends more than 10 miles east and west from the Waal to the Neder Rhine north-west of Nijmegen. It is still being steadily extended by our troops, who are probingout against stiff opposition. Our whole Dutch salient is stiffening and becoming a firmer bastion.

Gathering Strength

Fighting in Holland has entered an interim stage, says the German News Agency commentator (Sertorius). rloth sides are gathering for a great new trial of strength. Sertorius predicts a second storm centre of the Allied offensive can be expected in the southern sector with the object of breaking through the Belfort Gap.

Americans who seized high ground in the Foret de Paroy yesterday, knocked out 82 German tanks, many of which were caught as they attempted to flee from the forest, says Reuter’s correspondent with the American 3rd Army.

He adds that the 3rd Army has knocked out 1184 tanks since August 1. The air attack against the forest was the heaviest yet made by the Allies in the Moselle area. The Germans in the Foret de Paroy, before being pushed back, put up fierce resistance and carried out four major counter-attacks and numerous small attacks.

It is unlikely that the German Channel coast strongpoint at Cap Gris Nez can hold out much longer. British infantry this morning opened an attack against the area preceded by a heavy artillery barrage. Infantrymen launched the attack under cover of artillery fire and air support.

The Germans at Dunkirk after a fortnight’s passivity, yesterday staged two sorties. Both were pushed back.

Some German Success

A German counter-attack launched up the road from Kranenburg, eight miles south-east of Nijmegen, gained some local, success, says the British United Press correspondent with the British 2nd Army. The Germans took 200 yards of ground and fighting is continuing. The enemy bridgehead over the Neder Rhine has been reduced to a number of scattered troops and virtually eliminated. Determined German resistance at Schijndel has temporarily held up the British thrust toward Hertogenbosch from the north-west of Sloedenrode. The Germans are using Schijndel as the focal point of their defence system, but British tanks are rolling into action against it. It is revealed that hand-picked Dutch commandos brought from Burma to Britain, landed with and fought alongside the British airborne troops at Arnhem. Auneriean medium bombers’ and fighter-bombers attacked a Germanheld forest on the west bank of the Moselle this afternoon, says Reuter’s correspondent with the American 3rd Army. Thunderbolts attacked strongpoints from tree-top level. Artillery duels and clashes between patrols are going on on the Moselle front, but there are no major changes.

Germans Digging-In

The Germans appear to be diggingin in strength along the eastern bank of the Maas, whose western bank we reached on a 14-mi les front. Farther north, our patrols pushed six miles west of Elst between the Neder Rhine and Waal.

Some units of the 2nd Army are at the moment having a hard-earned rest, says the “Daily Mail’s” correspondent. They feel keenly at having failed by a matter of hours to relieve fully their airborne comrades, but it was not their fault, and they have not given a single inch of ground won in the last 15 hectic days. A few days’ rest will make all the difference, particularly as the road is clear right through now except about half a mile which is under shell fire. Our convoys are rolling through in hundreds in an endless stream. Great nupbers of “Montgomery’s Specials” —heavy artillery—are going forward.

Active Patrolling Continues

The 2nd Army now hold the town of Best, but the Germans are still dug in along the railway on the western outskirts of the town, says Allied headquarters. Active patrolling continues along the Leopold Canal, behind which there are still about 15,000 Germans.

Relatively little progress has been made west of Turnhout across the Ant-werp-Turnhout Canal, where opposition has stiffened. Along the American front local advances have been made south-east of Stolberg, also south-east of Prum, where eight German fortified points have been destroyed. Several counter-attacks in Metz area were repulsed. \ The R.A.F. Second Tactical Air Force shot down 31 German fighters for the loss of four in a series of dogfights in the Arnhem-Nijmegen area. .

The United Stales Ist Army made a small advance into Echterbosch Woods six miles north-east of Sittard. says a correspondent of the British United Press with the Ist Army. Otherwise the front is static, with artillery fire and patrolling diminishing.

Petroleum.—Natural petroleum is being produced in Britain at a rate of 700,000 tons annually, the Minister for Fuel and Power told tlie House of Commons.