Evening star., 1944-10-17
|YanksRepu|se
Heavy Aachen
'Counterdttack
u. S. and British
Pressure Mounts
On 50-MiIe Front
MAP on Page A-3.)
BY the Associated Press

LONDON, Oct. 17.-American
troops in a night-long battle
threw back the heaviest German
counteraSSault yet mounted east
of Aachen, and at dawn today
still held their lines ringing the
city.
Fifty miles to the north, British
forces fought into the Dutch town
of Venray, miles from the German
frontier at one gateway to the
Rhlne-Ruhr region. Fall of that
stronghold appeared imminent.
! The NaZi counte-blow near Aachen
sprang forward late yesterday and
reached peak near midnight, with
fierce fighting north of CrucifiX Hill
and Verlautenheide.
! Berlin radio declared the Amer
| leans were preparing a new offen-
sive and the enemy command
stepped up the tempo of counter
blows along the front. German ar
tillery was rushed up in the attempt
to hold the Ysnk forces in the sec
tor near andxabove Aachen.
Allied Pressure Increases.
American British pressure in
creased along a 50-mile front from
Venray to Aachen. An Allied tao
tical authority likened the situation
to that which preceded August S
Normandy breakthrough.
Tommies fought house to house
for Venray, which is a few miles
from the Mas (Meuse) River. and
other columns approached from
the north and east.
American teams continued slowly
digging Germans out of Aachen,
and repulsed all German counter
blows east a.Hd northeast of the
Siegfried Linz city.
German br5adcasts told of strong
reinforcements moving up behind
American lines and spoke of a COM
ing battle of Geilenkirchen." This
town is 10 miles above Aachen in
Germany.
A front dispatch said the Ger
mans turned the heaviest artillery
barrage of the Siegfried Line battles
against Americans southeast of
Geilenkirchen yesterday.
Heavy Enemy Fire.
Supreme headquarters reported
heavy artillery and mortar fire near
Ofden, midway between Aachen ana
Geilenkirchen. Stiff opposition of
all types is being met near Wur-
selen, where the Allied pincers on
Aachen was closed, it added.
Canadian Army troops advanced
more than half mile above the
Leopold Canal in the push to clear
the German pocket south of the
Schelde Estuary and open the ap-
proaches to Antwerp. The Germans
began withdrawing today to a new
defense line, running miles below
BreSkenS.
Berlin radio acknowledged "two
small breaches" were opened by
tanks and flamethrowers south of
Breskens.
The German radio said the Brit
Aoii %u <ai LlS UdShCu Wy l,OUu IdIlkS,
was ''at the ready" in the Nijmegen-
Arnheim area of Eastern Holland
waiting until it can be sure of a
supply port.
French Make Slight Gains.
At the lower end of the 460-mile
western front, the French lst Army
made slight gains in a campaign to
outf1ank Belfort Gap. Repeated
enemy counterassa'llts were re-
pulsed in the Vosges foothills. two
OF them failing in the Luneville
ARIA. Allied troops advanced far
thsr east of the Moselotte River
no theast of LIE Thillot.
On the American Sd Army sector.
the Germans west of Metz with
loudspeakers called on the Amer
leans to surrender or "be annihi-
lated within three hours. The ulti-
matum expired, nothing happened.
and the silence remained unbroken
| (See WESTERN FPONT pona a . \