U.S. TROOPS WITHDRAW
FORT OUTSIDE METZ Recd. 6 p.m. London, Oct. 16. It is now disclosed that the Americans three days ago withdrew from their small foothold inside Fort Briant, one of the main bastions guarding Metz, says an Associated Press correspondent with the American 3rd Army. The withdrawal was a climax to 10 days’ close Quarter fighting, in which the Americans penetrated only 100 yards into the underground passages beneath the fort. The Americans blew up enemy installations before withdrawing. Commenting on the withdrawal from the fort, an American spokesman stated that casualties, numerically, were light and the engineers gained much valuable information on the construction of Metz fortresses.
Reuter’s correspondent with the American Third Army quotes a spokesman as saying: “The fort might be taken by a frontal assault, but. it wouldn’t be worth the casualties. It is under direct fire from neighbouring fortifications."
The spokesman said the Americans had not used more than a single battalion at a time. They lost only six tanks while in action.
The Associated Press correspondent says the Americans tackled Fort Briant in order to ascertain whether Metz fortresses should be attacked frontally or by-passed. k
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WC19441018.2.39
Bibliographic details
Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 88, Issue 249, 18 October 1944, Page 5
Word Count
194U.S. TROOPS WITHDRAW Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 88, Issue 249, 18 October 1944, Page 5
Using This Item
NZME is the copyright owner for the Wanganui Chronicle. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of NZME. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in