Evening star., 1944-11-25
FoothoId Won
Across Rhine,
Radio Reports
map on Page A-3.)
~ the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
LONDON, Nov. 25.-The Paris
radio today said French forces
were moving toward a junction
between virtually liberated Stras-
bourg and Colmar to the south
swinging shut trap on German
troops in the VoSges Mountains.
While the Germans were using
every means to pull back across the
Rhine to the homeland in the south,
the savage resistance of 10 or II
Nazi divisions in the Aachen sector
held the advance of three Allied
armies to slow crawl.
In Strasbourg, French armored
forces were battling at close quarters
to smash the Germans from their
last dockfront stand guarding big
Rhine bridge to Germany.
The Paris radio said other French
armored units ranging along the
west bank of the Rhine from Stras-
bourg were within miles of meet
ing with advance units of the French
1st Army surging down the Rhine
from Colmar, 38 miles south of
Strasbourg. The broadcast said the
French and Germans were fighting
in the streets of Colmar.
Thrust Across Rhine Reported.
A front dispatch yesterday said
Allied patrols were reported to have
thrust across the Rhine from Stras-
bourg, but there was no official con-
firmation and no further report.
CThefe are reports in Stras-
boufg that French units have
rushed the main road bridge
across the Rhine and gained a
foothold on the German side
BBC correspondent in Stras-
bourg said today in report
heard by the Blue Network
Two divisions of American in
fantry broadened the Alsatian cor
ridor and beat off a German
counterattack northwest of the
Saverne Gap above Strasbourg.
The supreme headquarters COM
munique reported steady progress
toward clearing the enemy from the
Saales Pass in the Vosges above
Colmar, and off the slopes of the
commanding, round-topped noun
tain called the Ballon d'Alsace
north of Belfort.
An admission that German lines
in the Central Vosges were taken
back at several points" came from
tho berlin radio
Desperate Resistance.
In the Mulhouse region between
Colmar and Belfort the Nazis were
resisting desperately, with isolated
battles raging around a number
of towns. The Germans clung to
strong points and-the French ad-
vance surged around and past them.
On the central portion of the
Western Front 1t. Gen. George S.
Pattons American Sd Army had
won a crossing. of the rain-swollen
Saar, last big barrier to the Rhine,
at a point Is miles south of Saar-
brucken.
To the north a three army Allied
assault team, made up of the Amer
lean 1st and 9th and the British %
armies, fought on foot-by-foot on
the flooded f1atlands of the Cologne
Plain.
Theer an Allied staff officer de-
scribed every creek crossing as
almost an amphibious operation .
The savage resistance was result
ing in the greatest battle of the
western front.
Enter Weisweiler Outskirts.
First Army troops fought their
way house-by- house into the out
skirts of Weisweiler, 61s miles SOUTH
west of Julich. the Roer River
stronghold barring the advance to
Cologne, Is miles away.
Bourheim, miles southwest OF
Julich, was cleared completely of the
Germans late yesterday, a front dis
patch said.
British I'd Army troops, after los
ing Hoven and yielding some ground
below Beck, northeast of Geilen-
kirchen, held firmly against waves
Of counterattacking enemy troops