AMERICAN PUSH IN CENTRE

Southland Times, Issue 25532, 28 November 1944, Page 5

AMERICAN PUSH IN CENTRE

Progress Made Near Metz (Rec. 10.30 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 27. The 80th Division of the American 3rd Army is reported to have captured the strategically-import-ant town of Longeville les St Avoid, two and a-half miles north-west of St Avoid. A correspondent of the Exchange Telegraph Agency at SHAEF reported that the 3rd Army along a 30-mile front east and south-east of Metz, had made gains varying from one to three miles. Troops in the northern part of the sector gained a further mile near the German frontier and repulsed a counter-attack near Putzdorf. The bulk of the fighting in the 7th Army sector was in the north where continuous counter-attacks did not prevent our troops from pushing on three or four miles from Strasbourg, thereby considerably widening the corridor. Reuter’s correspondent at SHAEF said that the 7th Army has plunged clean through the Saales pass to within 10 miles west of Strasbourg. The Americans are now at the edge of the Alsace plain. The correspondent added that 2000 fighter-bombers backed up the Allied armies on Sunday when the central section of the western front flamed into new activity. ARMOUR IN ACTION

Armoured units of the 3rd Army fought their way one mile to the north on the east bank of the Saar river to Diedendorf, 16 miles south of Sarreguemines. German resistance in the 1400 square miles pocket bounded by Strabourg, Mulhouse, the Vosges mountains and the Rhine, where up to 50,000 Germans are estimated to be enclosed, is slowly breaking up as the French and Americans, v/ith considerable fighter-bomber support, stab through the Vosges passes to strengthen their northern and southern boundaries.

The Americans, in a swift push north-east of St. Die, are almost through the pass, having reached the area of Urmatt, 20 miles west of Strasbourg. Resistance is growing feebler. In Alsace, the Allies have consolidated their hold on Strasbourg, both in the north and south, and have foiled German attempts to cut through the base of the 30-mile long corridor formed by the armoured thrust. On the southern flank the Allied forces are pushing through the Schirmeck pass, down the Bruche river. The advance in Lorraine continues, but it may soon be held up in the zone of the Maginot Line, which the Allies are approaching. GERMAN STAND ON RHINE (8.0.W.) LONDON, November 25. The commentator of The Sunday Express, J. L. Garvin, says: “We are not yet near the climax of the battle of the Rhine. The best thing by far for the Allies would be to beat to pieces the enemy’s irreplaceable main force on this side of the northern Rhine. This is what General Eisenhower expects, believing that on the ground covering all the vital objectives of the Ruhr the Germans are bound to fight it out where they stand. General Eisenhower hopes to smash them there and so break open the way into the heart of the Reich.” His reasons are: (1) The Germans could not effect a large-scale retreat across the river without suffering mortal damage from Allied air power. (2) The Germans could not abandon their territory west of the Rhine to our three converging armies without sacrificing the effective defence of the Ruhr itself. It would be brought under devastating shellfire as well as mass bombing at the closest range. Its final doom would be sealed with irreparable damage to the resistance of the whole of the Reich. In The Observer, “Liberator” thinks it looks as if the Germans intend to stay in their present positions, they meant to stay south of Caen. “Here the war will in all probability be won and lost, whatever more dramatic developments may take place elsewhere on the front.”

The Spectator’s commentator “Strategicus,” says: “No one can be certain whether the Germans will fight west of the Rhine. It seems so clearly to our advantage that they should accept a decisive challenge there that it is hardly possible they will stake their fate upon it, if that can possibly be avoided.”

“Strategicus” notes that the Germans are fighting with a skill and fury never encountered before and mentions the

importance of the reappearance of the Luftwaffe in great strength over the back areas. It may be trying to offer protection to the communications, the Rhine bridges included, that feed frontline units.