Evening star., 1944-12-19
May Be Headed for Trouble.

The circumstances hardly call for
easy Allied optimism, but maps show
the Germans might possibly be
headed for more trouble than they
bargained for.
Their ''risk-all" drive could, by a
deep wedge, threaten lateral COM
munications between the Allied
northern and central fronts. But,
on the other hand, the Germans are
pushing into pocket of their own
making-a hazard so obvious that
Field Marshal Karl Rudolf Gerd Won
Rundstedt, or perhaps even Hitler,
must have weighed the danger long
before committing the German
forces in such strength.
The Germans have tried this same
desperate game beforehand both
were times when Hitler took control
from his generals. He attempted
it once in Africa and again about a
year ago in the Ukraine with the
famed but futile iron avalanche"
counteroffensive intended to wrest
back Kharkov and split the Red
Army offensive.
Against this latest bid for a bar
gained peace, Allied air power again
may tip the scales, as it did at
Avranches and in the Falaise Gap.
Weather Is Bad.
The weather was bad today. but
it was bad yesterday when British
and American fighter bombers gave
German armor one of its most ruin
Gus gatherings Revised United
States 9Th Air Force figures claimed
III German tanks, half-tracks and
other vehicles destroyed or dam
aged yesterday, trimming earlier
estimates of 95 smashed and 26 de
stroyed. The British did not report
their total for the day.
A British front correspondent
said the lst Army was not being
pushed back but was being torn
up in battle or not budging."
One pilot described the havoc left
from the aerial attacks, made
through lew clouds and hailstorms,
as the greatest destruction of Ger
man armor since the battle of the
Falaise Gap in Normandy last
summer, when the German 7th
Army went to its death.
Won Rundstedt apparently was
throwing in his whole arsenal. The
German air force was aloft again
by the hundreds along the United
States 9th Army front as well as
| the dented 1st Army lines. The
Germans lost at least As planes,
bringing their total losses for two
days to close to 200. Eleven Amer
ican fighter -bombers were missing
yesterday.
The 1st and 9th Army fronts were
Iathunder with antiaircraft fire and
the explosions of new-type V weap-
ons which the Nazis hurled against
forward as we'll as rear areas, a
front dispatch said. Official censor
ship did not permit description of
this new weapon.
The only indication of the Ger
man advance permissible at su-
preme headquarters was an an
nouncement from the United States
9th Air Force which said British
Typhoons had attacked 20 German
armored vehicles west of Stavelot.
The exact extent of the German
penetration was difficult to deter
mine. Before the present enemy
counteroffensive began the front
had been inactive for some time
and, while the original line gen.
orally conformed to the German
frontier, it bulged into Germany in
some places and into Belgium at
Others, depending on geographical
features. There also was a consid-
erabie no-man's land.
There was no news from Luxem-
bourg beyond the earlier disclosures
that enemy drives were aimed at the
Luxembourg frontier town of Wan
den and had reached Echternach, 10
miles southeast of Vianden.