LIBERATION OF BREDA

Waikato Times, Volume 195, Issue 22492, 30 October 1944, Page 5

LIBERATION OF BREDA

BRITISH AND CANADIANS LINK GERMAN DEFENCE LINE FALLS TO PIECES RAPID WITHDRAWAL OF ENEMY LONDON, Oct. 29 Breda, an important communications centre in Holland, has been liberated by Allied forces. Breda was entered by a column of General Dempsey’s mobile infantry and tanks, which formed the spearhead westward along the Tilburg-Breda road. The town was entered on Sunday morning after a short pause following the over-running of the village of Dorst, about four miles eastward, on Saturday. By Sunday afternoon the troops had cleared Breda of the main body of enemy resistance, later hunting out enemy nests and snipers’ posts. Breda is the fourth Dutch town to fall to the British and Canadians in the past two days. On South Beveland Island, in the estuary of the Scheldt, British and Canadian troops who pushed along the causeway from the east, have linked with the British forces, who landed on the south-east coast of the island. The whole German defence line in South-west Holland has fallen to pieces and 40,000 Germans are being forced back to the Maas by the unchecked onslaught of the Canadian First and British Second Annies, says the British official wireless. One correspondent says the Germans of the Fifteenth Army are withdrawing everywhere. It is likely that they are falling back to the long bridge over the Mass at Moerdijk, or to the ferries over the Maas at Willemstad. Another message says the Germans are going back fast and that there is no doubt they are finished south of the Maas.

A despatch from a correspondent with the British Second Army, adds the British official wireless, tends to substantiate the reports that the Germans are withdrawing on a large scale. This correspondent says: “Within 24 hours three very important towns south of the river Maas have fallen into British or Canadian hands.

“The final clearance of Hertogenbosch, Tilburg and Bergen op Zoom has effectively broken the back of Von Zangen’s strongpoint system south of the Maas and, with half the effective communication routes to Breda and Rosendaal severed by the swift advance of the Allied flying columns, the German formations left in this north-west salient must be withdrawn to a firmer and shorter line further north.

“If the Germans are not able to halt the present converging drives their next defence linfe cannot be below the line of the Maas.”

The Germans made a four-prong diversionary attack on the eastern side of the corridor, recapturing Meijel and achieving a small bridgehead over the Deurne Canal north of the town. However, by yesterday afternoon the drive had been halted, although fierce fighting continues in the neighbourhood.