The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-09-16
Vaunted Siegfried Falls
 As Tanks Storm Ahead
Continued from Page lJ

Der well over e million men on the march against Germany, probably the most-heaVily if not the largest armed invasion host ever gathered under a single commander,
 Crack Line
 Hodges First Army veterans, the first troops into Germany and the first to crack the "impregnable" Siegfried Line, made the most spec- tacular gains yesterday and early to-. day, virtually surrounding the big German border city of Aachen while their armored and infantry spear heads were tearing open the Nazl Notifications to tho east.
 The breakthrough, disclosed in a front dispatch from United Press War Correspondent Henry T. Cor rell, put the Tanks in the open more than seven miles beyond Aaehen and astride 6 great four-line motor highway running to Cologne and other key areas of dermany'S rich industrial Rhine and Ruhr Valleys.
 Cologne, R Sprnwling manufacture Ing and communication center ly. ing mostly on the west bank of the Rhine, seemed at the mercy of HodgeS' llard-driving tank spear. heads.
 dorrell reported that the Amer. jeans effected their through with only Q few casualties and met but weak resistance from scattered pillboxes beyond the main Siogfried works.
 Rich Prize
 The fall of Cologne, wnoe pre.war population of 76e,000 was exceeded only by Berlin, Hnmburg and Mu- nich, would give the Americans one of the richest prizes of Germany, It's vast engineering aad chemical works. railway yards md river port facilities were the first target in the Reich to Do singled out by the RAF for . 1000 plane bombing,
 Doughboyl of crack American infantry division teamed up with combat engineers, tanks and mobile artillery for the drive on Cologne that cracked the Gtoutogt link in the chain ot .c"'q guarding the German inner Citadel.
 Giant sl..e throwers and i65. millimeter guns mounted on tank chaSis literally blasted . path through the Nazl line, demollShing pilboXeS and bloekhouseS protected by 10 to IS feet Of concrete.
 The German fortress troops show. cd little disposition to light, however and dorrell reported that they were routed in short order
 American ist Army infantrymen closing in on Aaehen from all sides ran into Stiffer resistance as they fought their way to the edge Of the town. The Nazi tranBocean news agency said the Americans were ct the southeastern ane southern outs skirts of Aachen and attacking "FuthlesSly" despite heavy casualties,
 German Reports
 German reports reaching Stock. holm said civilians were eVacuating ARchen and other unidentified towns and villages in western Ger. many on orders from the NAEi high command.
 Furious fighting was reported In the border area just south Of Aaeh. en, where the ist Army captured Lammersdorf, two miles southeast of Rotgen, and in the Prufn area al. most 90 miles farther south
 HeadquArters around LaFnrners. dorf. pFum or Trier, but 1t was dis. closed that another list Army unit had crossed the Luxembourg border Into Germany between Trier and Prum. The Americana captured the village of Waiiendorf, 4 lie inside the Reich and about 20 miles north east of the city of Luxembourg, and front dispatches said they were