The Wilmington morning star., 1944-09-05
DISASTER FACES I
NAZI SOLDIERS
Entire Lowland Country
Appears Emerging
From Captivity ,

LONDON, Sept. 4.-P II
The British army in a ire
mendous sweep seized ths
Belgian capital of Brussels
and the great port of Ant
werp today and the Dutch
said these forces roared on
five miles into the Neither
lands. -
The lowlands appeared to be
emerging from Nazi captivity
even faster than they fell before
German armored might. The
enemy, pinned between the Brit
lsh and the sea, faced a Dun.
kerque'' from which no exit was
safe.
Splitting Belgium in half as the
climax to a drive that swept 21O
miles in six days, the British WITH
the seizure of Antwerp, 10 miles
from the Netherlands border, gave
the Allies their first big ocean
port to handle the flood of supplies
needed to keep offensives rolling.
Antwerp's fall cut the last rail
lines from the Belgian and French
channel coasts to Germany. 1t is
the second largest city in Belgium
and lies % miles north of the CAPT.
tai, which fell earlier in the day
to British arms with hardly shot
fired
A delayed report from the ninth
air force indicated that American
units also might have been in the
forces which Premier Pieter Ger
brandy announced to his country
men nave crossed the Dutch
frontier ''-heralding the opening
Of the battle for the Netherlands
three days after the battle for
Belgium broke.
Aneta, Dutch news agency, first
reported that the British had
hurdled the frontier and struck
five miles beyond to Breda, one
of the strongpoints which the Ger
mans seized in their airborne
blitz of 1910 and which SUISSE
quently was reported the head
quarters of Field Marshal Erwin
Rommel.
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower call
ed on the Dutch to save from
German demolition the docks,
factories and rails of Rotterdam,
Is miles north of Breda, indicat-
ing that the battle for the Neither
lands was breaking with the same
binding speed with which the
battle for Belgium was ending.
There was a giant melee involv-
ing by-passed Germans and charg-
ing Americans between Mons and
Brussels into which Allied war.
planes plunged until the contend
ing forces became too closely in
termingled.
Strafing and dive bombing,
fighter and fgnterbomber pilots
declared they destroyed more
than 1000 trucks and horsedrawn
vehicles and SO armored vehicles
before flying off looking for other
targets.
There were sensational reports
that the u. S. first and third arm
les had broken into Germany
along the historic invasion path at
Aachen and 100 miles to the south
at Perl. Scarcity of field dis
patches showed these powerful
forces were enforcing radio
silence. '''''
In their Chaotic condition, the
Germans are none too sure where
these armies are, and their ~
wilderment is underscored by the
rearguards stranded all the way
back to the vicinity of Abbeville
and Compiegne and the robot
bomb forces corralled in western
Belgium.
One front dispatch reported
hot engagement between Ger
mans and elements of the third
army at Pont-a- Mousson, midway
between Metz and Nancy, but the
Germans have been talking nerv-
ously about strong U. S. forces
far north of here. within IL miles
of the Saar frontier.
Canadian and Polish forces
broke heavy resistance at Able.
vile, far behind the Belgian front.
and drove on 20 miles north to
Hesdin, on the Canche river. The
Germans hemmed in around Ca
lais, Boulogne and Dunkerque had
little hope of escape.
1t was becoming hourly mors
probably that 1t. Gen Omar N.
Bradley's 18th army group mad
driven into the Reich. Foreign re-
ports said two penetrations had
been made at Achen, two miles
inside Prussia.
Five American aircraft and four
men Two were lost in the strikes
against the volcano and BONN is
lands, the communique reported.
In a separate raid Sept. Z
against island, three libertor
bombers were damaged by anti
aircraft fire. Three others were
damaged at Nauru by prouiAd fire.