SEE-SAW BATTLE FOR TOWN

Southland Times, Issue 25514, 7 November 1944, Page 5

SEE-SAW BATTLE FOR TOWN

Berg Occupied By Americans (Rev. 10.5 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 6. The Americans have occupied Berg, 22 miles north-east of Metz which has changed hands three .times in the past two days says Reuter’s Correspondent with the United States 3rd Army. The Germans used Berg and Asone as the main Moselle crossings for patrol actions against 3rd Army forces. “We have encircled a pocket in which are now trapped two battalions of enemy infantry,” says a correspondent from the Aachen area. “In a see-saw battle all day over the salient heavy fighting raged for the town of Schmidt which was recaptured yesterday by the enemy. American tanks are now engaged in the battle for Schmidt.” The predicted full German retreat north to the line of the Maas River is now almost accomplished, writes a correspondent at 21st Army Group Headquarters. In all areas along the front of 50 miles west from Hertogenbosch to the sea enemy troops hold only thin defensive lines or have pulled out entirely from the area south of the river. Already at points equalling altogether about 25 miles, British 2nd Army or Canadian troops have closed right up to the southern line of the' river. GAINS ACROSS CANAL British troops made gains of up to two miles in their push across the Aftwaterings Canal—running westward from Hertogenbosch — which was launched yesterday evening as the last remnants of the enemy forces south of the Maas fled north, says a correspondent of the American Associated Press with the British forces. Backed by flame-throwers, tanks and devastating artillery fire the British advanced half-way between the canal and the Maas, capturing four villages from five to seven miles west of Hertogenbosch, including Brunen. They also cut the main eastward road in this area.

The German radio stated today that the German 15th Army “completed its disengaging movement in southwest Holland.”

The German News Agency quoted a High Command spokesman as saying: “The British, with massed air support, have resumed their attacks against the Arnhem bridgehead. The British last night dropped sabotage parachutists behind the German lines to prevent the bringing up of reinforcements. All the parachutists were wiped out or captured.” NEW FRENCH ARMY IN ACTION Heights Taken In Alsace (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, November 6. Young French soldiers of General Charles de Gaulle’s new army were the first French patrol since May 1940 to stand on the heights dominating the Alsatian plain, says the correspondent of the Exchange Telegraph Agency with the French Army. They won the position after fighting knee-deep in mud, ejecting Germans from defences which appeared almost impregnable. The correspondent disclosed that the Germans on this front used high voltage electric wire for the second line of barbed-wire entanglements. He saw the charred bodies of victims who had tried to cut the wires.