ALLIES CLOSING IN ON FRONTIER

Southland Times, Issue 25549, 18 December 1944, Page 5

ALLIES CLOSING IN ON FRONTIER

ENEMY COUNTER-ATTACKS ON IST ARMY FRONT (United Press Association—Telegraph Copyright) (Rec. 11.30 p.m.) LONDON, December 17. In the Franco-German frontier region between the Saar and the Rhine, the Allies are now meeting strong German resistance based on the Maginot and Siegfried Lines. They have practically closed up to the frontier itself from the Rhine to the wooded region connecting the Vosges with the uplands. The Germans still hold a position along the old French frontier defences to a point north-east of Bitche, beyond which the Americans are in contact with the Siegfried Line all the way along the frontier to south of Duren. The Germans yesterday launched counter-attacks on the southern sectors of the Ist Army front along a 70miles front, from Duren to Trier. Correspondents at SHAEF say that the attacks are presumably designed to draw off the Allied forces from other parts of the western front where the Germans are hard-pressed, also to protect the Cologne Plain. The Germans struck with formations varying from platoon to battalion strength. The attacks could not be described as a counter-offensive. The first counter-attacks began before dawn and were quickly followed by others, until more than a dozen were under way, says the correspondent of the Exchange Telegraph Agency with the United States Ist Army. No ground was lost, but the fighting is vicious. It is difficult to see what the enemy hoped to achieve by the attacks, unless he is testing his chances of making a break-through. The 7th Army has taken Wissemburg, but this is not of strategic importance because it lies in a valley dominated by high hills, in which the Siegfried Line defences are deeply entrenched. Scheibenhardt, north-west of Wis-. semburg, was also captured, constituting the deepest penetration of the Reich so far. Reuter’s SHAEF correspondent reports that 7th Army troops have cleared Lauterburg and made slight advances along the German border. The Germans withdrew most of their forces to the Siegfried Line when things began to look bad on the 7th Army front, and the Americans have not taken many prisoners. On the 3rd Army front, the 90th Division, overcoming stiff opposition, yesterday penetrated the Germans’ main defence line at Dillingen, over-running 13 blocks of houses in the town and swamping 14 pillboxes.