The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-11-24
100000 Germans
 Massed, Cologne
(Continued from Page D

German counter-attackS Southaast of Belfort and in Mulhouse area.
 Leclerc's spectacular advance into Strasbourg frightened the Allied trap around 50,000 German troops being driven back against the Rhine blythe Third and Seventh armies in eastern France.
 With the western half of the city in their hands, the French already have nenied use of Strasbourg' S two highway and one railway brdge across the Rhine to all but the garrison of the city itself and there was a possibility the spans might fall into French hands in- tact
 Nine other permanent bridges cross the Rhine between Strasbourg and the Swiss border, but major ity of them were believed already captured by French First Army troops or severed by Allied bombs
 All signs indicated that Coln1ar, half way between Mulhouse and Strasbourg, soon may become the enemy's escape bottleneck from Alsace, while the Allied air offen- sive may reduce his bridges to a teW pontoon affairs.
 The enthusiastic French Press al- ready was crediting Leclerc, whose second armored division was fight ing with the American Seventh Army, with liberating Strasbourg, but their reports were based on a mistranslation into Engllsh-and then back into F'rench-of the French war minister's announce ment yesterday that French forces had entered the city.
 Field dispatches sent after the newspapers had gone to press em- phasized that only the western or modern half of the city had been liberated and German resistance was stiffening.
 Behind Strasbourg, Leclerc's main forces were flaming out over the wide Alsatian plain capturing towns by the dozens and liberating vlllag- eS by the scores.
 Infantry Advances
 Other elements of the Seventh Army,s 18th corps were matching the French units success. Mopping up in the wake of LeclercS advance, they toppled the by-passed fortress of Phalsbourg, in the Saverne gap and sent American infantry sweep ing across the plain toward Stras- bourg.
 The 18th Corps was capturing prisoners at the rate of 1000 a day. Among the 5000 taken in the past three days were two generals, Gen. Werner Won GilSa, commander of the 89th corps, and Major General Bruhn, commander of the 553rd 1n- fantry division. Bruhn was captured in bed at Birkenwald, south of Sa- verne.
 Farther south, the veteran Amer ican Third Division drove to the crest of the Vosges in an advance to Saulxures half way through the Saales Pass. Only IS miles beyond lay the Alsatian Plain between Strasbourg and Colmar.
 French North African troops in the SOuLIlcTu VOoSco CdpCuACO AC Thillot after having been stopped cold for more than month within rifle range of the town.
 Snow and flooding of portion of the Belfort Gap slowed French First Army operations on the ex- treme southern flank, but some ele- ments drove four miles north of Mulhouse to within IT miles south of Colmar and others threw counter attacking Germans back to Dan- nemarie, 12 miles east of Belfort, after they had penetrated to within half mile of the Swiss border.
 The battle inside Germany south west, east and northeast of Aachen developed into toe to-toe slugging match. The Germans were coun- ter-attacking frequently, but with the exception of the loss of Hoven on the British front, the Allied line appeared to have held.
 A spokesman at Ninth Army head quarters acknowledged that very stubborn enemy resistance and con- tinued rain had kept that Army's entire sector virtually stationary during the past A hours.