1st ARMY NEARS DUREN

Southland Times, Issue 25546, 14 December 1944, Page 5

1st ARMY NEARS DUREN

WIDE ALLIED FRONT IN NORTH (Rec. 8.30 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 13. Five more villages guarding the Roer river fell today in quick succession to Ae American Ist Army, which in a surge forward over a 16-mile front made general advances in some places of more than a mile, reports a correspondent of the Exchange Telegraph Agency with the Ist Army. After the fall of these villages Ist Army troops were’ from 300 to 600 yards from the Roer over a four-mile front and within 1000 yards of the outskirts of Duren.. Reuter’s correspondent at Ist Army headquarters says: “One infantry division which fought its way into Pier, five miles north-west of Duren, is reported to have virtually destroyed an entire German battalion holding the town, killing 168 and wounding and taking prisoner the remainder.” ADVANCE IN SNOWSTORM Other American troops and tanks, making a sudden 2000-yard advance in a snowstorm this morning, reached within a mile north-west of Duren. Allied troops also reached the Roer river at three places on a 1000-yard front north-east of Brandenburg. American infantry have almost reached the river crossing carrying the Adolf Hitler motor highway to Cologne. Reuter’s correspondent with the American 9th Army reports increased flying bomb activity today over the 9th Army zone and adds that missiles appeared to be following a slightly different course, which may be the result of the Germans being forced to move the launching bases in the face of Allied advances. The German News Agency has admitted the abandonment of Thann and the bridgehead at Kembs on the west bank of the Rhine, 10 miles north of Basle. DISTURBANCES INSIDE GERMANY Casualties Reported On Home Front (Rec. 11.30 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 13. Hundreds of German security police have been killed in disturbances inside Germany and Occupied Europe, says a correspondent of The Daily Express on the western front. Black Guard casualties on the home front are as high as those suffered by the Black Guard on the battlefronts and in air raids combined. Americans have captured copies of the fortnightly journal, Der Deutsche Polizei, in each issue of which is a full page of obituary notices of Black Guard men. They are printed within a heavy black border, under the heading: “They gave their lives for the Fuhrer and the Reich.”

These death lists seem to support reports from German prisoners that disturbances are going on inside Germany. Most of the deaths occurred in occupied areas behind the lines on the eastern front, but others occurred in Hamburg, Bremen, Cologne and Berlin.