Evening star., 1944-10-08
Six Towns in Germany Overrun;
Sd Army Strikes in Luxembourg
Men and Supplies
Enter Reich by
Six-MiIe Breach
MAP on Page A-5.J

QUARTERS, Oct. 7.-Doughboys
of the United States 1st Army
= cracked German defenses wide
open along emile front north
Of Aachen today and swept up
six German towns in a high
powered 3-mile drive that en-
countered whiting resistance.
The Americans overran Beggen-
dorf, Basweiler, Herbach, Merkstein,
Hofstadt and Alsdorf as they ham,
mered to point five to six miles
inside Germany in the onruSh that
was described by an American staff
officer as definite breakthrough
The U. S. troops are meeting less
artillery fire and weaker opposition,
field dispatches reported tonight.
Tanks, infantry, artillery and sup
plies poured into Germany through
the gap torn by the Americans
Planes and tanks battered at the
enemy as the American advance
units pressed ahead.
Whole Front Stirs.
eThis is definitely breakthrough
and not a withdrawal" 1st Army
staf officer declared. There still
are defenses ahead of us, but we
have driven through the main line
OF resistance in this sector"
The whole 460-mile front stirred
restlessly. The U. S. 3rd Army
struck in the long-dormant Luxem-
bourg sector, cleared Germans from
virtually the entire duchy, and was
nearing the frontier town of Wor-
meldange due east of the capital
on the Moselle River facing the
Reich.
Thus two great American armies,
the 1st and 3rd. were cementing
their assault lines from Holland to
Northern France, but for the mo-
ment at least 1t was the 1st Army
which was driving toward the in
dustrial heart of Germany along
the Rhine and Ruhr.
The power drive. rolling over the
bitterly fought Ubach sector 8
miles north of the historic invasion
gateway to Germany at Aachen,
overran the German town of Bas-
weller, severing one of two main
roads leading 80 miles northeast
to Dusseldorf at the doorway to
the rich Ruhr Valley.
Going Slow and Hard.
While this momentous fighting
was raging, other doughboys in al
most division strength were rolling
through the forests Is miles south
east of Aachen in a new punch that
already had carried through the
first mine fields and dragons teeth
of the West Wall against negligible
resistance.
Between these two sectors, 1st
Army troops fighting within Is
miles of Cologne in the Hurtgen
Forest 10 miles southeast of Aachen
hammered forward three quarters
of mile, cleared the last of the
West Wallis pill boxes and were
tackling the earthworks beyond.
The going was slow and hard, but
they were 10 miles inside Germany
and widening the breach in the
Siegfried Line.
On the 3rd Army front, the Amer
leans wrested the northwest and
southwest corners of the great Fort
Driant from the German garrison,
fought 100 yards down an under
ground passage leading to the main
Notifications, but then found their
way barred by steel and concrete
bulkheads.
7th Army Scores Gains.
But this key fortress guarding
Metz on the west was hotly pressed,
German batteries could no longer
depress their guns, SO close were the
American attackers, and one force
seized positions atop artillery en-
placements next to the main bat
terry in the center Of the fort.
On the southern end of the front
the United States 7th Army in
gains of from 5 to Z miles closed
(See WESTEpN N mo NNJrT ro--- "A