UNDER ARTILLERY EIRE

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVI, Issue 22998, 15 September 1944, Page 5

UNDER ARTILLERY EIRE

PARTS OF SIEGFRIED FINE PLANS FOR MAJOR ATTACK NOT YET COMPLETE By Telegraph—N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright (Received 10 p.m.) LONDON, September 13. FROM well camouflaged positions in the Luxembourg * hills, American guns to-night are firing across the River Ourthe (a tributary of the Moselle separating the Duchy of Luxembourg from Luxemburg) states Reuter’s correspondent with the United States Third Army. They are laying dawn the first sustained artillery barrage on German soil. Pillboxes and bunkers in the Siegfried Line received direct hits, also installations in small German towns, including a large barracks. A column of vehicles, apparently withdrawing east, also was peppered. Not one German gun replied. Swedish newspaper correspondents in Berlin say it is now admitted that the Allies have crossed the German frontier “at several points between Aachen and Trier,” also that “certain parts of the West Wall are under artillery fire, but the main defences have not yet been reached.” “The Allies are not yet ready to launch a major attack against Germany,” states Major Morley Richards, the military writer for the “Daily Express.” “The Allied momentum on the border of Germany and in German territory itself is mounting, but thig does not mean that the last battle is about to begin. The deployment of lour Allied armies along the 300 mile front to make a major attack possible is obviously not complete.”

General S. Patton’s armoured spearheads across the Moselle to-day advanced under fire eight miles in two hours, states the correspondent of the Associated American Press.

Americans “flushed” the Germans from the woods into a rain of bombs from waiting American planes. The Americans out-flanked Ponta Mousson, which is a German river defence bastion. Armoured columns swung into high-geared action for the first time in a fortnight after the infantry had smashed the Germans’ one great attempt to seal off a breach in the Moselle defences between Ponta-Mousson and Nancy. Front Extended German tanks and infantry, attacking from a point just south of PontaMousson in darkness early this morning over-ran the American command post and wounded the commander. Infantry using bazookas knocked out eight German tanks, then cut off the attacking force, taking most of them prisoner. The Americans attacked at dawn, quickly expanding the battle area until it was two miles wide and eight miles deep. Meanwhile more tanks and guns and all the components of a striking force flowed steadily across the river through bursting shells and passed over the ridge beyond the river. More than 100 German vehicles, were forced from the woods and the waiting planes pounced on them. An American armoured column added gunfire to the attack. The slaughter of the enemy column went on until it seemed that the entire woods was on fire. The American tanks did not tarry. They pushed on out of sight many miles from the river. It is stated at Supreme Allied Headouarters that the American First, Third and Seventh armies have taken 320,000 prisoners since D Day. The Berlin political commentator, Dr. Joseph Saal, warned the Germans that they might soon be defending the Rhine. In a broadcast to the people of the Rhineland he said: “With all his might the enemy is pressing on to gain a foothold on Rhenish territory. To-day we are calling on you to defend yourself to the utmost.” Dr. Saal declared that there was no difference between the Western Allies and the “bloodthirsty Russians.” The Cologne newspaper, “Koelnishcer Zeitung” said: “The hammer of destiny is striking heavily against us. There are grounds for fear and we are filled with anxiety. Our hard fate moves us deeply, but the end will find us steadfast.” Roetgen Captured American tanks which yesterday morning swept across the border into the almost deserted township of Roetgen in Germany seven and a-half miles east of Eupen, are now tackling more formidable German defences, states Reuter’s correspondent inside Germany. He adds that the tanks reached Roetgen in a blaze of small arms fire. The tanks rumbling into Germany found only a handful of frightened but not unhappy citizens. Roetgen is the first German village to be captured, and it was not difficult. The handful of people remaining during the battle for the township stayed hidden. White flags flew from windows, indicating that whatever the German army might do there would be no resistance from the citizens. The tanks began pouring shells against German installations in the hills behind the town less than 15 minutes after the first units entered at 4.50 p.m. The correspondent of the Associated American Press states that the Americans quickly broke through the primary defences in the Roetgen area and are now assaulting anti-tank obstacles and pill-boxes just beyond the town. American self-propelled 105 millimetre guns are firing from German soil in support of the attack. The Germans are defending all obstacles and pillboxes much more strongly. It is yet too early to draw conclusions, but the resistance so far has been less than expected. There are many indications that the headlong German retreat in Belgium is continuing to the Rhine. The German News Agency says the Americans have captured an outlying Siegfried Line fort east of Verviers. Captives Liberated The American Third Army captured Neufchateau, states the correspondent of the Associated American Press. The Third Army also liberated 500 Americans, mostly women, and some men and women of British and other nationalities from the German internment camp at Cittel, 18 miles south of Neufchateau. The Third Army has now captured 80,300 prisoners and is estimated to have killed 24,000 and wounded 70,300. The correspondent of the British United Press in Germany says that the first penetration of Germany in strength was achieved with only one casualty. He was an American lieutenant who was wounded by a sniper. Americans from Roetgen are standing within rifle range of the German fortifications but the only German fire so far has been from anti-aircraft guns trying to keep the Allied fighterbombers at bay. Reuter's correspondent in Germany says the Americans yesterday dug in on the heights overlooking Aachen after fighting into outposts of the Siegfriend Line against surprisingly weak opposition. The Germans mounted machine-guns in one crater on the road from Roetgen, from which they fought a desperate rearguard action, but the Germans generally retreated before the advance of the American infantry patrols who cleared the town. Further Advances Allied columns have already passed Lammerseory, about 12* miles southeast of Aachen, according to the Paris radio. Another column about 50 miles further south has advanced approximately six miles on German soil. Formations moving east and north of

Mastrlcht are reported to have reached points about four miles from the German frontier.

The German Overseas News Agency says that American troops continue to attack on a broad front east of Verviers, supported by most powerful air forces. Bitter fighting is raging at the Siegfried Line fortifications which fell into American hands, with German troops counter-attacking to prevent the Americans from exploiting their gains. The Americans also are attacking on a broad front from the Luxemburg area to the Moselle and the Our and have pushed out three wedges, but no important changes in the front have resulted.

The correspondent of the British United Press on the Dutch frontier states that with the Reich border in ever increasing danger, the German plan for holding the Allies outside it appears to have become unhinged. There are three main reasons: (.1) The speed of the Allied advances; (2) the inability of the Germans to form effective battle groups, and (3) the scattered groups of Germans left to hamper the Allies have themselves been harassed and pressed by the Belgian Army. The German defence plans failed around the Albert Canal because of the lack of the men, and the Escaut Canal looks like going the same way. The Germans made frantic efforts to hold on to the Albert line with the remnants of mauled divisions stiffened with new men. Tough Operation Ahead The battle for Belfort and the famous Belfort Gap, the key to the Rhine Valley, may be a tough operation, states Reuter’s correspondent on the Seventh Army front. Apparently the southern armies’ sensational advance of 400 miles from the Mediterranean coast almost to the borders of Germany in less than a month has ended and a pitched battle is about to begin. The 17 miles wide gap, which is one of the classic defence positions in Europe—with the Vosges Mountains to the north and the country at the foot of the Juras to the south cut by a series of canals and ditches —can be swept by gunfire. The Germans could use a large number of the retreating forces to supplement the divisions assigned to its defence. It will require a stiff fight to reduce it and the southern armies may find some time necessary for preparation after their previous exhaustive pace which, naturally, taxed the supply lines.

The American and French forces yesterday again rolled across more of Eastern France in a wide converging manoeuvre toward the gap, which the Germans apparently Intend to defend strongly. The Allies, approaching from the south-west and south, are meeting with varying resistance, mostly light except where the enemy is trying to cover his forces hurrying for the gap. The German rearguards fought hard to keep the Langres-Vesoul-Belfort lateral road open, but it has been cut with the capture of Vesoul, and may be cut again soon nearer to Belfort. One means the Germans are using to snatch the remnants of their forces from closing the jaws of the Allied armies is to have long troop trains with steam up waiting at the stations in every town to which the troops are retreating. The Allied Air Force is now hitting these trains.

Forces of the American Seventh Army, advancing against lessening resistance to-day, reached Flagy, six miles north of Vesoul and 30 miles west.. of Belfort, states Reuter’s correspondent at headquarters in the Mediterranean. The French gained further ground in the upper Ource Valley south-east of Chatiilon. The Germans continued to put up stiff resistance against the Allied right flank between Villers Exel and Pont de Roide.

The meeting between the Third and Seventh Armies so far is only slender contact by armoured patrols on the flanks of the converging armies. These contacts do not represent a main junction of the armies, though this cannot long be delayed. American Army cameramen who were gresent at the meetings at Seine la aye, 15 miles north-west of Dijon, yesterday said it is possible to drive direct from Dijon to Paris in a day over roads under Allied control. Much evidence of the Germans’ hasty retreat can be seen. There are abandoned guns and lines of wrecked vehicles. Grim Alternative “Death or capture are the grim alternatives facing the German forces, unofficially estimated at 40,000, who have been cut off by the link-up in force of the Seventh and Third Armies at Chatiilon,” says Reuter’s correspondent at Mediterranean Headquarters. “The large bag of Germans remaining west of the new link is officially described as containing scattered but substantial groups of personnel. The Southern France invasion forces have already captured 75,000 Germans “The net is closing on Belfort. The french on the Seventh Army’s right flank gained some five miles yesterday toward Montebeliard, against relatively light opposition; but resistance is still strong near Pont de Roide, where the French are within 10 miles of Belfort ” The Fiench Forces of the Interior have liberated the port of La Rochelle, to which considerable German forces had returned.