The Wilmington morning star., 1944-09-17
ADVANCE ALONG
500-MILE FRONT
Doughboys 26 Miles From
Cologne; Others Fight
Into Vital Aachen
Bv HOWARD COWAN

SUPREME HEADQUAR-
TIERS ALLIED EXPEDI-
TIONARY FORCE. Sept. 16.
|-(P)-The u. S. first army,
driving through the famed
Siegfried line "a hours,
fought out into the open to-
day on one of Hitler's super
highways within 26 miles of
Cologne as six Allied armies
pounded forward on a 500
mile front. ..
The hard-hitting U. S. Third
army freed the western half Of
the town of Thionville, only
Is miles from the rich German i'll.
dustrial Saar basin, and in light
ming move sent tanks cutting in be-
hind Metz, the most important
French fortress city still in enemy
| hands.
The approach to Cologne was re-
proted in a front dispatch which
said 1t. Gen. Courtney H. Hodges
infantry had moved on II miles
east of the surrounded German
frontier fortress of Aachen and
asserted the .WestWall breach south
of the city was so wide the whole
German defense system was in
peril. $780,.
Nearing Rhine :.
Patrols at number of points
were beyond the last Notifications
before the Rhine.
Doughboys fought into Aachen.
guarding the shortest road to Ber-
lin, and it appeared to be topping.
(The Paris radio, adding to the
picture of spreading German rever-
sers, declared the American had
fought into the center OF the great
Breton port of Brest and had taken
10000 prisoners. This report was
without official confirmation.)
The Saar basin, with its wealth
of coal, iron and industry, was inn
periled by 1t. Gen. George S. Pat
toms third army fighting inside
Thionville, only Is miles away.
Here the third seized a section
of the Maginot line. which had been
remodeled to form outWorks for
the Siegfried line, and turned
it's German-instaled 105-mm guns
on the enemy holding the half of
Thionville on the east bank of the
Moselle. ::t ~
The flaming German frontier viii
lage of Wallendorf, SO miles SOUTH
east Of Aachen, marked the point
Of the fourth American entry into
Germany and brought war grimly
home to the German citizen. The
village was put to the torch by
doughboys to smoke out snipers.
This penetration was about half
way between two others at prum
and Trier, where the doughboys
after driving eight to ten miles
inside Germany truck hard cores
of resistance in the main belt of
Notifications some with walls
six feet thick.
1t was disclosed officially that
in the Prum area the first army
had made a narrow penetration"
the Siegfried line at Branshied
against very heavy opposition.
The bag of prisoners taken by
the first army alone rose to 49,
375, making a total for the Ameri-
cans of 341,375 since the June 6
landings.
On the northern reaches Of the
front, the Germans threw in num-
erous counterattacks in an attempt
to check an American push from
the captured Dutch city of Ma
astricht eastward toward the thin
ner line of Siegfried defenses
stretching north from Aachen.
The Seventh Army on the ex-
IRENE southern portion of the front
solidified its junction with the third,
pushed up to a point SO miles due
west Of the Belfort gap itself.
Counter-Attacks
The Germans also launched coun.
ter-attacks against the British north
of the Albert canal near the Ducth
border, but to the west they were
giving away along the coast and
the Poles of the Canadian First
Army were 2 IL miles into Hol-
land.
The main interest in the fight.
ing conferred, however, on the strue-
gle around Aachen and it was on
this sector that supreme headquar-
tiers said the Siegfried line had
been completely penetrated
Shaef emphasized that this did
not imply breakthrough, although
suggesting strongly that one was
likely, since breakthrough is &C.
complished only when breach il
exploited to the extent that troops
can pour through freely.
The drive put 1t. Gen. Hodges,