ALLIES DEPLOYED

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVII, Issue 23114, 31 January 1945, Page 5

ALLIES DEPLOYED

THREAT TO RUHR Slow But Steady Progress

By Telegraph—N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright (Rec. 8.30 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 29. Troops of the First Division of the American First Army during the night stormed Bullange, and captured and completely cleared it by 9 a.m., stated the correspondent of the British United Press with the First Army.

The correspondent added that of 3CO troops holding the town, 100 Germans were taken prisoner and another 100 bodies were counted on the streets, where one Mark V tank was captured. The Germans pulled out of the town as the “righting First” charged through snow and ice. Other First Army troops who took Herresbach, six miles south of Bullange, captured 200 Germans. The correspondent adds that about a quarter of the German strength in single-seat fighters on the Western Front has been transferred to the Eastern Front in the last 10 days. Reuter’s correspondent with the Sixth Army Group on the Rhine Front, says the German army attacking in Alsace apparently has shot its colt. The troops are reported to have promised to present Strasbourg to Hitler on January 30, but they were never so far from fulfilment.

Frontline reports show’ that the Germans, after a costly attempt to cross the Moder River in the Haguenau area, seem to have lost the initiative. They probably expect a resumption of the American offensive to the Reich border, which is on an average 16 miles to the north.

General Eisenhower’s forces are now deployed along or beyond the 200 miles of the Siegfried Line, all the way from Holland to the southern part of the Saar, says the correspondent of the Associated Press of America at Supreme Allied Headquarters. With the American First Army’s new push taking it to within a mile of Germany, and the American Ninth Army and the British Second Army closed up to the Roer and through the Siegfried Line at many places, the Allies are potentially threatening the Ruhr and the Rhineland, while to the south the American Third Army is either near or across the border all the way to Saarbrucken.

The slow reversal of the Ardennes bulge, squeezed perhaps 20 American divisions out of the straightened salient, allowing them to rest for the next battle.

The British in St. Odileinberg underwent a terrific shelling from enemy guns from east of the Roer River, but the Second Army front was otherwise quiet to-day.

The enemy still occupies the extension of the Siegfried defences guarding the approaches to Roermond from the south.

The correspondent of the Exchange Telegraph Agency on the Western Front reports that snowstorms raging all along the front have enforced a continuance of the lull on the Seventh Army front as well as hampering the French plodding forward in Alsace. French Forces Extending Grip The French are meeting fierce resistance against their attempts to squeeze out the Colmar pocket. They are flghtimr little more than a halfmile from the outskirts of Colmar. They are extending their grip along the north bank of the canal, which Allied tanks and troops reached yesterday. Along a front of more than a mile the French troops are steadily approaching the canal running east of Colmar to the Rhine with the aim of cutting off the Germans in the corridor running north to Strasbourg. French forces entered Grussenhelm, seven miles north-west of Colmar.

In the Mulhouse sector the French cleared five colonies of mine workers which the Germans hotly defended. The Germans had been shelling areas in northern Alsace, including Saveraged, the rateway to the Saverne gap. Lieutenant-General C. H. Hodges’S First Army is forcing its way into towns formerly cn its front line before von Rundstedt’s offensive in December, and to-day they reached the outskirts of Bullange, 10 miles east of Malmedy, not far from the point from which the northern thrust of the German breakthrough was launched, says a correspondent at Supreme Allied Headquarters. Bullange was one of the first towns to be mentioned in connection with that offensive. Six miles lower down, the other First Army groups also, quickly flattening out the remnants of von Rundstedt’s short-lived gains, to-day pushed east nearly two miles through snow. One small town cleared was Herrespach, six miles north-east of St. Vith. At this point they were two miles from the German frontier. They have advanced nearly four miles since yesterday morning. Resistance before General Hodges’s troops is coming only from small groups of 20 or 30 men who seem mainly German supply troops—butchers, bakers, clerks and headquarters staff. It may well be that these, as in the past, are being used pillow fashion while von Rundstedt draws the real fighters to a consolidated line—in this case probably the Siegfried Line. Two more towns. Derschied and Roder, were cleared to-day in the northern part of Luxembourg by General Patton’s Third Army. Patrol (’lashes Activity on the British Second Armv front between the rivers Maas and Roer was confined in the last 12 hours to vigorous patrol clashes with the enemy. Paratroop units are offering the most stubborn opposition in the north-west corner of the salient south of the Maas loop below Roermond, says a correspondent with the 21st Army Group. Sappers are busy clearing mines ahead of our spearhead elements.

Another town cleared after three days’ fighting is Autschied, northwest of Vianden.

Further south, in the Alsace region, French troops of General de Tassigny’s First Army are within 1000 yards 'of Colmar, having broken through to the junction of the 11l River and Colmar Canal. The names of the two corps in the French Army were disclosed this afternoon. They are the Second Corps, commanded by General de Montsabert, who also has American troops under his command, and the First Corps under General Bethouart. Grusenheim was to-day finally taken by French troops.

General Patton’s troops crossed the River Oui’ at two places to reenter Germany. One crossing was made near Oberhausen, on the west bank of the river, eight miles south of St, Vith, and the other at St. Peterskirche, a mile and a half farther south. German opposition was stiff. Two thousand German vehicles spotted east of St. Vith comprised motor transports, armoured vehicles, tanks and even buses all camouflaged white. Fighter-bombers destroyed 690 and damaged 571 motor transports and destroyed 18 and damaged two armoured vehicles. Again Moving East German traffic is again moving east to-day, states the correspondent of the Exchange Telegraph Agency with the American .First Army. He adds that reconnaissance planes observed 2000 vehicles six to 10 miles east of St. Vith. Fighter-bombers attacked them, while artillery shelled another column southwest of Prum.

Besides scoring a direct hit on the Hohenzollern Bridge at Cologne with a 10001 b bomb yesterday, American bombers knocked down the new Rodenkirchen Highway suspension bridge, states a communique from U.S.A.A.F headquarters. This bridge, 1834 feet long and 90 feet wide, was completed in 1941. Photographs show that the central span is in the Rhine, and ice is jamming against it. Of five bridges across the Rhine at Cologne, three are down, one is damaged and one is standing. German troops in pillboxes 100 yards from the Canadian positions in the Nijmegen area were shocked to find a huge sign facing them addressed: “To Russian patrols. Please don't shoot. Friendly troops beyond this point.” The Germans were so numbed at the inference that their guns remained silent, says the correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph" with the Canahnus.