SAAR BRIDGEHEADS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25717, 13 December 1944, Page 5

SAAR BRIDGEHEADS

UNDER HEAVY FIRE (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 12. The correspondent of The Times on the Saar front says that in addition to constant counter-attacks, the Germans are keeping up heavy artillery fire against the Allied bridgeheads across the Saar at Saarlautern and to the north of the town. On each of three days they fired 6000 rounds into ground held by the men of two divisions. United States artillery is thundering back into the enemy’s positions east of the Saar.

Dillingen remains the scene of fierce fighting. Men of the 90th Division, in spite of the fury of the enemy opposition, are consolidating their footing over the Saar. Tanks, jeeps, tank destroyers, and anti-tank guns are each night got across the river. •To the south, too, on the fringe of Saarlautern, men of the 95t’h Division are having an equally hard fight. The Germans in this area are fighting from tanks driven into houses. Most of the houses in these Saar towns have reinforced basements which the Americans call mouse-holes. Good progress is being made in the Saareguemines area.