The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-09-05
Patton's Third Army
 Drives To Moseue
Continued from Page lJ

to French frontier sources which said American armor had plunged to the Rhine and the German border at the outskirts of Strasbourg, 70 miles east of Nancy,
 To the northwest, the dispatch which lacked confirmation in any other quarter said, American and QermAn troops were locked m pat. tic on NaEi homeland soil around the border city of saarbruoken.
 A big force of U, 8, Flying Fort. Msses and LiberAtors with Mus tang escort struck on ahead of the land armies ct the Rhlneland cities of Karlsruhe, Stuttgart and Lud- wigshafen, keystone of the first de- lenses of Germany proper,
 American advances on the center of the front were indicated by the announcement of Premier Pierre Dupong of Luxembourg that Allied forces had marched into the grand Duehy and It's hour of liberation was at hand, General Dwight D. Eisenhower made like statement yesterday in message broadcast to the LuXembourgerS,
 Sklmpy information at supreme headquarters late today suggested the possibility of Q showdown to some extent from the sensational pace maintained by the Allied armies in carrying the war to Ger manys doorstep,
 Specific Word
 The only specific word at head quarters was that Canadian troops had pushed near Boulogne, indieat- ing that the south side of tho pocket enclosing tens of thousands of Ger mans was eaving in. The barrier penning the Nazis to tho coast was about i40 miles long, lying between the Boulogne area through Are and Lille to Antwerp.
 The Nazis, apparently doomed to death or capture, were reported sur rendering by the thousands to the Canadians,
 An official spokesman said the Antwerp port facilities, some of the best in western Europe, were in quite good condition,' since the Germans had little time to carry out their demolitions before yielding the great port to onrushing British forces,
 Richards dispatch and meager word at headquarters opened a mere chink in the security veil" hang ing over the American operations for three days,
 A spokesman said Pattons troops were advancing eastward from the Verdun area against stiffening re. sistance, and the lst Army still was mopping up nests of resistance in the Compiegne-St. Quentin area.
 Beyond Llege
 U. s, lst Army columns on the British right flank were reported, however, within 25 miles of the NaN border beyond Liege, 60 miles south- east of Antwerp,
 The German defense of the Low countries appeared to have col- lapsed under the slashing thrusts of tfS British tanks and motorized infantrymen advancing through feeble opposition and liberating town after town as fast as their supply trains could follow. An esti- mated 100000 Germans were pinned against the channel coast in their rear.
 Most of Belgium was in the hands of tEe British and their American lst Army comrades driving eastward through the Mouse valley, and the spede of the Allied offensive indi- cated that the battle of the Nether- lands would be over as swiftly as in l940 when the German hordes con- quered the country in five days.
 The drive into Antwerp at the Schelde river estuary, closed the last avenue of escape for the cornered German divisions holding out far to the west in the French channel ports of Le Havre, Boulogne, Calais and Dunkerque.
 Loosely Held
 Official spokesmen admitted that the terrain between the north bank Of the Somme and Antwerp was only loosely held at many points and some of the 100000 hemmed in Germans could probably break through. The pocketer Nazis were known to have lost most of theii armor and transport, however. and it was believed that the great major- ity almost certainly faced death or capture.
 British troops stormed into Ant werp yesterday after 24-mile dash north from Brussels and by evening had cleared isolated Nazi rear guards from the dock area and were driving on across the Dutch frontier.
 Antwerp was the first big. modern port taken by the western invasion armies since the capture of Cher bourg, and first reports indicated its port area was taken intact.
 Unconfirmed reports said the Brit ish captured Waterloo, nine miles south of Brussels, where Napoleon's armies were defeated in 1915.
 Advanced columns pushed seven miles over the border to occupy Breda and were r eported rolling across Flat. almost undefendabie terrain toward Eindhoven. a miles to the east-southeast. The thrust outflanked Rotterdam. a miles ncrth-northeast of Breda.
 LsOuvain, i3 miles east of Brns- sells, Mechelen. "a miles north of the capital, and Aiost, ls miles to the northwest. also were taken. Eflie WaAon A1ae Hha French ln6Nkl4Ini aifV of falle.