MEMORABLE DAYS

Waikato Times, Volume 195, Issue 22513, 23 November 1944, Page 5

MEMORABLE DAYS

HOSPITALITY IN PARIS ] MR CHURCHILL’S MESSAGE j ANGLO=FRENCH UNITY Official Wireless) (Received Nov. 23, noon) RUGBY, Nov. 22 Mr Winston Churchill sent the following message to General de Gaulle on his return from Paris: “Now that I am back home let me express to Your Excellency and your colleagues of the French Government my profound appreciation of the splendid hospitality and innumerable kindnesses and courtesies shown me and my friends during the memorable days I have just spent in France. I shall always recall as one of the proudest and most moving occasions of my life the wonderful reception which the people of Paris gave their British guests on this, our first visit to your capital after its liberation. “I am also most grateful for the opportunity of seeing for myself something of the ardour and high quality of the French troops, which are completing the liberation of their native soil under the skilful leadership of General de Tassigny. The welcome extended to us was indeed a happy augury for that continued friendship between our two countries which is essential to the safety and future peace of Europe.” General de Gaulle replied stating that he had been glad to welcome to France the man who had kept the coalition together in the war in the darkest days and thus enabled it to achieve victory. GERMANS FALLING BACK TOWN REDUCED TO RUBBLE ARMY CHAPLAIN BLOWN UP (Received Nov. 23, noon) LONDON, Nov. 22 The nine miles stretch of the great motor road from Aachen to Cologne to a point south of Durwiss is in the hands of the American First Army, states a British United Press correspondent, cabling from Eschweiler, from which the troops pushed on to Durwiss after the capture of Eschweiler. The German armies to-night are falling back on the twin road hubs, Duren and Julich, the main gateways to Cologne, says Reuter’s correspondent. The Americans, hacking and slashing forward along the rain-swept front, met their most serious resistance at Weisweiler, east of Eschweiler. There the Germans threw, in even their headquarters’ companies in a bid to hold open .the corridor for the garrison withdrawing from Eschweiler. “The centre of Duren has been reduced to rubble by gunfire and bombs,” the Daily Express correspondent at Eschweiler says. “This is a town where nearly everything has to be labelled ‘Don’t touch,’ and every road is dangerous. It is packed with mines and booby-traps. An Army chaplain has been blown up by a mine while attending to our dying men.” Barrage by 1000 Guns A Ge/man radio war reporter, in a broadcast from the front line, stated that 10U0 guns to-night opened up a barrage against the main German defence line on the Aachen front. Concentrated forces of bombers, besides tanks in numbers beggaring description, attack us ceaselessly. Heavy close-quarter fighting is going on to-night inside the Siegfried Line east of Geilenkirchen, says Reuter’s correspondent with the British Second Army. For sheer grimness of purpose on both sides it has had few parallels in this war. The heaviest German pressure has been around the little village of Beeck, 3£ miles northeast of Geilenkirchen. Here tfcte Germans counterattacked with infantry and tanks. The Germans still hold Beeck tonight. Six enemy tanks have been knocked out in this area to-day. Judging from their strategy during the past few days the Germans intend to convert Germany into one huge minefield. Every wood through which we fight is sown with explosives of every description. CAPTURE OF MULHOUSE STREET FIGHTING IN BELFORT VIOLENT ARTILLERY FIRE (Received Nov. 23, 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, Nov. 22. French First Army troops captured Mulhouse and are at the gates of Colmar, General de Gaulle told the Consultative Assembly. The American Press correspondent reports that the French took 1000 prisoners at Mulhouse, including part of the staff of the German Nineteenth Army. • Violent street fighting is going on in Belfort. The French Forces in the Belfort Gap area beat off an enemy counter-attack in the area of Delle, where the Germans tried to cut off the French armoured forces. The Swiss radio says that continuous and violent artillery fire was heard in Basle today from the Belfort area, indicating large-scale fighting. French tanks yesterday afternoon, repeatedly attacked German pillboxes along the lines from St. Louis to Neudorf, four miles from Basle. Between 3000 and 4000 Alsation civilian refugees last night flocked across the Swiss border. Town in Flames Reports from the Swiss-French frontier tonight say that French troops repelled an attack by about 15,000 Germans in the Suarce. and Le Puis area, which is about 12 miles couth-east of Belfort. Le Puis is in flames. Reuter’s correspondent says that German troops trapped in the rough triangle Belfort-Delle-Altkirch recaptured Suarce. Street fighting continues in Belfort and the Germans are resisting stubbornly in the Chaienois woods, near Belfort, and also are holding their positions on the Rhine-Rhone canal. The Germans in the Suarce and Le Puis district are fighting hard to break through to ihe Swiss frontier to sever General de Tassigny’s com- | muni cation lines. i 1600 SORTIES FLOWN ; AIRMEN HELP GROUND FORCES • (Received Nov. 23, 11.30 a.m.) RUGBY, Nov. 22 j American heavy bombers bombed j troop concentrations and strafed comI munication targets in Yugoslavia, i states a Mediterranean communique i Tactical aircraft and fighter bombers j were active in the Italian battle area I and attacked communications in the ;Po Valley. Fourteen of our aircraft j are missing. ! The Allies flew over 1600 sorties.