Evening star., 1944-09-10
Western Front
en- route to a POW ca
Continued From First Page.)

OF Notifications known as the Sieg-
fried Line.
(The German home radio was
heard giving the Fatherland a
slogan-"They shall not pass
borrowed from the French of
Verdun during the World War;
The Germans also poured re-
Inducements from the Netherlands
into the furious fighting on the
British front, but Tommies held on
after winning another foothold
across the Albert Canal, which
guards the northern approaches to
the enemy's frontier.
(The Germans appeared more
concerned over the Sd Army
threat, the Berlin radio saying
that huge forces of men and
material" were massed in the
Metz AREAS miles from the
Saar-and that ''large-scale as
saults on the Saar border are
imminent"
Capt. Ludwig Sertorius, the
Nazi military commentator, said
the Sd Army had started a
frontal attack against the town
of Metz"
More than 1000 United States
heavy bombers for the second
straight day plastered rail and in
dustrial targets in the Ruhr and
Rhine valleys, while deadly Black
Widow American night fighters
pounced on troop columns trying
to move east across the Rhine under
cover of darkness.
The big German counterattack
against Gen. Patton's north flank
rolled out of Luxembourg through
the enemy stronghold of Thionville
and apparently tried to come behind
the 3rd Army fighting before Metz
and its bridgeheads across the
Moselle River to the south.
30 of 40 Tanks Smashed.
Fighting became wild and so con-
fused that even generals were fir
ing point blank, at the enemy, but
when the last shots died away the
forests were strewn with wounded
and the hulks of 80 tanks of the
force of 40 which paced the attack.
More than 700 prisoners were TAX
en- within a few hours.
1t. Gen. Miles C. Dempsey's latest
crossing of the Albert Canal where
it cuts was near Geel, "a miles east
of Antwerp.
This bridgehead is IL miles north
west of the original crossing at
Beeringen. This latter push was
stalled inside Bourg-Leopold. about
Is miles west of the German from
tier, with the British holding part of
the town. CThe Germans said the
British had third bridgehead
north of Antwerp)
The Germans gambled with strong
reserve forces on this front because
1t screens the approaches to the
weakest link in the entire Siegfried
Line-the hastily-built 70 miles of
bunkers and pill boxes from Aachen
nOrthward to Kleve.
Headlng Tor Aachen.
Aachen, the gateway city to Ger
many along the historic paths Of
European conquest, was in the path
OF the American 1st Army charging
up from the fallen Belgian fortress
city of Liege.
While this front was covered BY
a security news blackout. the dough-
boys were reported Friday at Rom
see, a village >three miles east of
Liege, 10 miles from the border
and 20 miles from Aachen.
Since German Notifications ex-
tend well in front of Aachen, it was
believed likely the Americans were
no more than Is miles from the
Siegfried Lines outposts.
"a German military spokesman
said the Americans were attack
ing in the Liege area with strong
forces and asserted both sides
were hurrying up reinforce
mentS.)
A large force of Germans pocketed
along the Belgian coast tried to
break out between Gent and Lille,
the French industrial city to the
south, but beat itself to pieces in
heavy fighting.
Hindered by Flooded Area.
British, Canadians and Poles,
squeezing the enemy in the Channel
ports of Boulogne, Calais and Dun
kerque, France, and Zeebrugge, Bel
gium, were hindered by extensive
enemy flooding.
Allied forces moving into the cap
tured Belgian Channel ports of
Oostend and Newport found them
badly demolished. Despite the dam
age, Oostend gives the Allies the
first good port close to the war front
and British headquarters said it
was a mystery why the Germans
ceded the harbor without a fight.
Allied bombers kept up the cease
les battering Of the big ports of LIE
Havre and Brest. Pilots returning
from Brest said the whole city
seemed to be afire.
Poles and Canadians were hurt
ling the canal barriers of Belgium