A CONCENTRATED OFFENSIVE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25697, 20 November 1944, Page 5

A CONCENTRATED OFFENSIVE

ALLIED ARMIES ATTACK ON NARROW FRONT - / BATTLE ON GERMAN SOIL ■ I (United Press Association) i ' (By Electric Telegraph—Cqpyrtght) (Rec. 10.30 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 18. Reuter’s correspondent at Allied Headquarters says that General Eisenhower has thrown in three armies on a 30-mile front x in the; most concentrated offensive the world has ever known. The British Second Army and the American First and Ninth Armies muster a strength of 400,000 men, almost equal to the entire strength of the German Army in the west, which is believed to be 500,000. The German News Agency says the British and American Armies on a 41-mile front in the Aachen area are using 1000 tanks. The German line is being subjected to a terrific drumfire barrage such as has never previously been experienced. The Allied forces on Friday pumped 20,000 shells into Geilenkirchen alone. > j The Associated Press correspondent at Allied Headquarters says that troops and armour of the British Second Army joined the American First and Ninth Armies at dawn yesterday east of Aachen. Three armies qre now relentlessly striking as one in a terrific drive towards the Rhine. Ah American broadcaster over the Paris radio expressed the opinion that this new combined drive is “the real thing.” He pointed out that three armies were exploiting a relatively small gap in the Siegfried Line. “An army’s tactics are to find a weak spot and then go all-out.” “ The whole of Germany is on the eve of becoming a battlefield. The Germans are facing the most terrible months of the war; nothing on earth can halt the Allied armies now.” In these words Moscow radio sums up the position in Europe.