SUFFERING NEGLECT

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25001, 18 September 1944, Page 5

SUFFERING NEGLECT

SIEGFRIED DEFENCES CORRESPONDENTS' REPORTS (Heed. 5.35 p.m.) LONDON. Sept 16 The Siegfried Line is proving obsolete and not nearly as formidable as the Atlantic Wall, says the British United Press correspondent at First Army Headquarters. The Associated Press correspondent says the Siegfried Line is suffering from four years of neglect. It may not prove any more difficult to breach than the area of the American break-through. Many parts of the line, the correspondent adds, are reported to have been unmanned as late as a week ago. Many sectors"are inundated with seepage and some guns are said to have been removed. "We thought we would get hell knocked out of us when we began to move against the last line of defences," said an American major, describing the breaching of the Siegfried Line. "We sent patrols against the lino and thought we would be lucky to get the boys back, but the next thing we knew was that they were sitting right in the middlo of the defences." JOY IN MAASTRICHT TOWN GAY WITH FLAGS (Reed. 5.35 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 16 It was the first United States Army which liberated the Dutch town of Maastricht. Some of the bridges across the Maas had been blown up. A Dutch news, agency correspondent, one of the first Dutchmen to enter Maastricht, following its liberation, says tho predominant feeling is one of broken tension. People cannot realise what it means to be free. The town is smothered with flags and everybody is wearing orange. Two hundred of 500 Dutch Nazis who remained in the town have been interned. The heads of a number of women collaborators have been shaved. Burgomaster Peters, nicknamed "Louis the Drunk," has been interned. He took office in 1941 when Burgomaster van Kessenich resigned for reasons of principle. The citizens have now invited van Kessenich to resume office. BATTLE FOR BREST FIRES RAGE IN TOWN LONDON, Sept. 16 House by house, street by street, American infantrymen are having to tight for the town of Brest which, though bomb-battered, is still holding out. Half the town has been cleared from the southern approach, but mines and booby traps impede progress. Fierce hand-to-hand fighting is going on between buildings. It is difficult to say exactly where the front line is now, so closely are the forces interlocked, says a correspondent. In the background tho great fires of Brest still burn and huge columns of smoke billow into the sEy like a volcano in eruption. General Ramcke, commander of the Brest fortress, in a messasge to Hitler broadcast by the Berlin radio, said: "The battle has reached a climax. The enemy has destroyed all the fortifications. The garrison is fighting among the ruins and fires rage. All ships have been scuttled and installations destroyed. The invaders will find only ruins. We have only a few guns left." AMERICAN ARMY POSTS EISENHOWER'S COMMAND LONDON, Sept. 16 General Patch's Seventh Army is now under General Eisenhower's command, according to an announcement from Supremo Hcadauarters. This means that General Eisenhower now commands all the Allied forces operating against tho Germans in Western Europe. Supreme Headquarters announces that Lieutenant-General Jacob Devers has assumed command of the Sixth Army group composed of French and American units. There are now three Allied Army groups operating in Western Europe, the 21st, 12th and Gth. General Devers, who has been DeputySupremo Commander in the Mediterranean, is an expert both in tank and amphibious warfare. VILLAGE BURNED DOWN (Reed. 5.35 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 10 Wallendorf, six miles east of Diekirch, which was the first German village captured in the American First Army sector, was set on lire on Thursday anil burned down, because of persistent sniping, says the Associated Press correspondent with the Americans.