JOINS AMERICAN THRUST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25736, 6 January 1945, Page 5

JOINS AMERICAN THRUST

ALLIED FRONT 21 MILES

GERMANS FIGHTING BACK HARD

(United Press Association) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Rec. 1 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 5. British tanks and infantry have joined the American First Army’s attack against the northern flank of the Ardennes salient, and the Allied offensive front has been extended to 21 miles. The British attack began yesterday between the villages of Hotton and Marche, and good progress has been made against heavy resistance.

In general, the First Army has made only slight advances since noon yesterday. The-weather is appalling, and extensive minefields under a foot of snow, in addition to concentrated fire from enemy bazookas, anti-tank guns, 88 m.m. and machine-guns, are holding up progress.

General Patton’s Third Army, beyond Bastogne, is only 14 miles from the First Army, but its advance towards the vital road junction of Houffalize is slow. The enemy is throwing in fierce counter-attacks.

In the first 36 hours of its offensive the First Army advanced three miles and a-half, capturing 30 villages and taking 1500 prisoners, says the Daily Mail’s correspondent at Allied headquarters. Armoured fighting is occurring in the narrow, twisted streets of Malempre, three miles south-east of Grandmenil. Other troops advanced beyond Beffe, which is three miles and a-half south-east of Hotton.

The British United Press correspondent says the First Army captured Amonines, five miles south-west of Grandmenil. Along the Saar Valley the Germans seem to be making less progress generally and in some cases are being thrown back, while in the Bastogne sector General Patton seems to be regaining the initiative.

The correspondent of the New York Times at Allied headquarters says that the growing success of General Eisenhower’s counter-offensive against the German salient in the north must be balanced by the Seventh Army’s withdrawal from German soil in the south from Saareguemines eastward to the Rhine. The movement may be unimportant strategically, but tactically it is important and is certainly a decided political advantage for the Nazis, who have now cleared the invaders from German soil on a wide stretch and again invaded Alsace.