DUTCH FRONT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25660, 7 October 1944, Page 7

DUTCH FRONT

GIVEN FIRST PRIORITY GERMANS’ PATCHWORK ARMY (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 6. Hitler has given priority to the Dutch front, says the Daily Express correspondent with the British Second Army. It is actually priority because all the German reserves this week are being committed, not to the Russian front, but to the Rhine. The correspondent expresses the opinion that we underestimated the Germans’ enormous recuperative power. There are units made up of submarine crews, battalions of deaf men who take orders by sign language, units made up of desk workers with stomach ailments, units of river police turned infantry, and many Germans are fighting with unhealed wounds, but all still fight, and fight viciously.

The German war mucin.is running again right along the western front. There is no stamina in the German attacks, but they continue to make attacks. This patchwork army forms the crust against which the Allied forces are hacking and hewing without anything very spectacular to show for it.

The Canadians crossed the Dutch border at Putte and are pushing on to the north against little opposition, says an Allied communique. At some points the enemy is withdrawing so rapidly that it is difficult to maintain contact. The garrison strength at Antwerp is estimated at 15,000. During the last two days there has been an extensive clearing up of Germans overrun in various areas, says a correspondent at Allied Headquarters. To the north-east and north-west of Antwerp troops of the Canadian Army cleared the enemy from positions

within an arc of about eight miles, while other elements cleared the east bank of the Scheldt as far as Lille. Further east, between the two forests at Cappellen and Stabiook, our troops advanced to the north and have nearly reached the Dutch frontier at Prittg. North-west of Antwerp we reached For de Brasschaet. Further east, near Baalcnassau, where our force lost ground yesterday, we regained our positions and advanced further north. We also pushed on for two miles north of Poppel and reached Voort, three miles south-east of Tilburg. The enemy salient in the Turnhout area has been eliminated. , Enemy troops in the Reichwald forest preparing to attack our troops were broken up by artillery fire. South-west of Metz our troops fighting' within Fort Briant are meeting stubborn resistance from the enemy, who is defending from dug-in positions and pillboxes. . Further southward an enemy counter-attack was repulsed in the vicinity of Sivry, north of Nancy. In the Epinal sector we made slight local gains south-east of Saint Ame. Elsewhere stiong enemy resistance was encountered.