GERMAN TROOPS DIGGING IN

Southland Times, Issue 25482, 30 September 1944, Page 5

GERMAN TROOPS DIGGING IN

POSITIONS ALONG MAAS (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, September 29. The Germans appear to be digging in in strength along the eastern bank of the Maas, whose western bank we reached on a 14 miles front. Farther north our patrols have pushed six miles west between the lower Rhine and the Waal, A strong enemy patrol sent out from Dunkirk was beaten back. The Canadians, closing in on Calais, have crossed the moat surrounding the town. Three German counter-attacks against the American salient, east of Nancy, have been repulsed. . Some units of the 2nd Army for the moment are having a hard-earned rest, says the correspondent of The Daily Mail. They feel keenly having failed by a matter of hours to relieve fully their airborne comrades, but it was not their fault and they have not given a single inch of ground won in the last 15 hectic days. A few days will make all the difference, particularly as the road is clear right through now, except about half a mile which is under shellfire.

Our convoys are rolling through in hundreds in an endless stream. Great numbers of “Montgomery’s specials”— heavy artillery—are going forward.

AIRBORNE SURVIVORS Evacuation To Britain (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, September 28. The War Office has announced that the commander of the Ist British Airborne Division, Major-General R. E. Urquhart, was taken prisoner, but escaped. It is stated at SHAEF that a number of airborne survivors are being evacuated to Britain by air. Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands sent a telegram to the King expressing admiration for the airborne troops’ magnificent stand at Arnhem. “My people and I deeply grieve the loss of so many brave’young lives. We will never forget the debt we owe to them,” the telegram stated.