THRUST INTO HOLLAND

Waikato Times, Volume 195, Issue 22460, 22 September 1944, Page 3

THRUST INTO HOLLAND

BRITISH BASE WIDENED AMERICANS NEARING METZ (Received Sept. 22, 1 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 21. The base of the British armoured thrust stretching up beyond Nijmegen is now 25 miles wide. The British United Press correspondent says that there is now apparently no chance of the enemy being able to cut across the long armoured finger that we have thrust up into Holland. Increasing protection is being given to the flanks of this thrust and the British troops are thrusting out westward.

The British United Press correspondent with the American Third Army says that American infantry has "advanced to within six miles south of Metz, the nearest we have yet approached. Our armour is advancing slowly east of Metz against strong enemy counter-attacks. Our spearheads pushing north-east of Nancy are meeting stiff resistance in the area west of Diuze. The German tanks here are paying heavy toll, 53 being knocked out yesterday. Heavy fighting is also raging a mile east of Luneville. Nineteen thousand Germans surrendered en masse southward of the Loire river.