Evening star., 1944-09-29
8 to 10 Towns
Are Seized in
Fierce Battles
Map on Page A.
By the Associated Press.

LONbON, Oepl. %. - lie
American Sd and 7th Armies
have advanced 3 to 5 miles
through fierce German resist
ance in Alsace-Lorraine, it was
announced today. The Sd Army
alone knocked out 81 German
tanks in its powerful onslaught.
The two armies scored the deepest
and widest gains of any on an Allied
front seething with the mounting
power of new offensives.
The Sd Army was knocking at the
four main passes through the Vosges
to the Rhine, while the 7th Army
was prying at the Belfort Gap only
II miles away.
On these southern sectors of the
500-mile front, the Yanks smashed
half dozen enemy counterattacks
which cost the Germans heavily,
captured eight to 10 villages and
their bag of enemy tanks was one
of the biggest since D-day.
Nazi at Calais Ask Terms.
To the north the German COM
mander at Calais asked for sur
render terms. while 1t. Gen. Sir
Miles G. Dempsey's combined British
I'd Army and parachute forces
closed up to the Mas (Meuse)
River on 20-mile front from their
Nijmegen corridor in Holland.
The United States 1st Army, on
the middle reaches between this
Allied left wing and 1t. Gen. George
S. Patton's Sd Army, pushed the
line OF assault up to the German
frontier in yet another sector cap
turing Remich in Luxembourg.
Remich is on the Moselle boun-
diary between Luxembourg and
20 miles southwest of the German
city of Trier.
There was no word from the 1st
Army'S salient through the Hurtgen
Forest, IA miles southeast of be-
sieged Aachen, in the push toward
the Rhine at Cologne There the
biggest Allied guns - 10-inchers -
have been dueling with German
batteries and knocking at strategic
targets.
British Push Westward.
Field Marshal Sir Bernard L.
Montgomerys 21st Army Group
froces, pushing out westward from
their salient in Holland, where they
threatened to cut off 100000 Ger
mans, also moved to within S
miles Of S-Hertogenbosch and, clos
ing in from the south, extended
their bridgehead over the Antwerp
Turnhout Canal.
But the fercest fighting was to the
south.
Gen. Pattons forces struck 5 miles
due east OF Pont "a -Mousson. be-
tween Metz and Nancy, and liber-
ated Port-surS Seile, just north of
the historic hinge where French
troops in 1914 stalemated the Ger
man drive through Lorraine and
held pivot on which the whole
front swung from the northeast.
Thirteen to twenty miles in an
arc northeast and east of Nancy the
Sd Army held firm against four ma
jor counterattacks near Pettencourt.
Bezange and Coincourt and smashed
ahead to high ground in the forest
of Parroy.
1t was in and around that forest
that the Germans rushed in most
Of their tank strength-and where
they lost the heaviest.
Big Battles Develop.
One of the biggest battles was de-
veioplng for the important road
center of Rambervillers, 30 miles
southeast of Nancy. midway be-
tween Luneville and Epinal.
From there and Epinal, Lure and
Pemiremont-cores of the Allied
front-the Vosges slope up 5000 feet
to the passes of SALES. Bonhomme,
Schluct and Bussang, gateways to
The Rhine.
Built, 3l2 miles south of Rambler
villers, and the village of Destord.
Just south of Built, were captured in
advances of 3 miles.
Somewhere south of Remiremont,
SO miles southeast of Nancy, strong
ly dug-in German forces am
bushed an American advance force.
But farther south another attack
ing force cleaned up the last Ger
man resistance in Servance and sew
eral nearby villages and hammered
on east.
Servance, l3 miles northwest Of
Belfort, is % miles west of Null
house and only 40 from the Rhine
border of Germany.
The forest of Mont de VanneS.
IL miles northeast of Belfort, was
cleared and the advance continued
The Germans lashed out again
ana again with counter-b blows, but
the Americans gave no ground. East
of Lure. below the Vannes Forest.
they withstood heavy attack and
drove the enemy back from a field
Uttered with German dead.
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