NO SIGN OF QUITTING

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 28 September 1944, Page 5

NO SIGN OF QUITTING

GERMANS ON MOSELLE FRONT A CORRESPONDENT’S STORY London, Sept. 26. The British United Press correspon- . dent with the Americans near Metz says: “Nobody coming fresh from abroad with a preconceived idea that the Germans are on the verge of quitting would get much support for this notion if they visited the front line here. The Germans may be intending to surrender, but you would not think so from here. They have studded the countryside with pillboxes and artillery positions from which they slam shells into the Americans. “Approaching the front, which here is ten miles inside Germany, you hear the rumble of artillery long before its. arrival. It must be remembered that this is not a strictly solid front like the last war. It is a long projection on a skinny salient running into Germany. We can see a farmer’s wife still living in no man’s land. She appears whenever the shells begin falling and waves a white handkerchief as a token of her strict neutrality. The country looks so peaceful and rural that it j seemed we could march straight ahead. Actually it is bristling with hidden defences. although here the Americans have the Siegfried Line behind them. An explanation of our present hold-up is bad weather, which permitted the Germans to bring up tough 'divisions while Allied airmen were .unable to hit them. A few days’ sunshine may change everything.” “The Tijnes” correspondent on the Moselle front says: “Dull skies, heavy rain and thick mud are adding their unpleasantness to life along this front. However, the fight continues with the American Third Army maintaining steady pressure. Six German counterattacks were repulsed in the Dieuze sector yesterday, each in battalion strength. Thirteen tanks were used in one attack,of which eight are reported to have been knocked out. The Americans are gradually wresting position after position from the Germans and • when better weather makes close con- | tinuous air support possible there may ’ be another roll forward reminiscent of 1 General Patton’s advance in August.” Reuter’s correspondent with the 1 Seventh Army says: “Days of cold, 1 driving rain have slowed up the Ame- [ ricans’ advance to the east. It is at : present as cold and wet as any English ; winter. The Germans are taking ad- : vantage of the conditions and are stif--1 fening resistance, bringing in more ; artillery. They intend to make us fight ■ hard for every mile to the Rhine. The • Americans are receiving their first is- ; sue of winter underwear, overcoats, and extra blankets. Front line troops have been shivering in light clothes.”. The British United Press correspondent with the American First Army says: “The situation was static all today. The Germans fruitlessly counterattacked one sector in the Aachen-Stol-berg area. American long-range artillery is continuing to pound the railway centres of Eschweiler and Duren, which are eight and 13 miles east of Aachen.” Berlin radio commentator, Dietmar, declared to-night: “The triumphant cries in the camp of western enemies were not without a justifiable background in the past few weeks, but now the situation has undergone a thorough change.• The British and American Command, despite the hopeful position in August, failed to split the German front.”