Evening star., 1944-12-02
Sd Army Expands
Positions AIonq
Suur River
MAP on Page A-2J
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
PARIS, Dec. 2.-Lt. Gen. Will
liam H. Simpsons 9Th Army
troops today battled into the
Roer River bastion town of Lin
Mich, showing the northern arc
of the battle of the Cologne Plain
within Is miles of the twin cities
of Rheydt-Munchen Gladbach,
where many of Germany's Rhine
land factories are located.
The 9th Army men moved back
into Roerdorf and Flossdorf lost to
vicious Nazi countercharges, and
their comrades of 1t. Gen. Courtney
H Hodges 1st Army farther south
chopped slowly through fierce re-
sistance toward Duren on the Roer.
To the south, tanks Of the Sd
Army heightened the front on the
Saar River opposite Merzig to 10
miles. 1t. Gen. George S. Patton's
armor and men maSsed in striking
positions along the Saar Valley.
On the right flank of this assault
base, Sd Army forces were within
2 miles of Saarlautern, and farther
east doughboys were only miles
southwest of Saarbrucken.
18th Army Exploits Gains.
1t. Gen. Alexander M Patchs
7th Army troops were exploiting
what seemed to be definite COL
lorc Of tho 1i,,n
Northern Lorraine. They drove to
the outskirts of Haguenau and in
sweeping flank attack reached
point 10 miles northwest of the
city-within 10 miles of the Reichs
border
Strasbourg still was under heavy
German shellfire from east of the
Rhine. The Germans tried to REIN
force their tenuouS and shallow
brld2ehead along the west bank at
StrasbouTg by boats under cover of
2 SnokeScreen, but American artil-
lery collapsed the attempt. Dough-
boys battled up the staircaSes of
apartment buildings in the eastern
suburbs in an effort to pinch out
the bridgehead there.
To the south. the Colmar Gap be-
tween the American 7th and French
1st Armies was squeezed down to not
more than 80 miles, front dispatch
said.
Battle RACES at linden.
A savage battle ragged at linden
along the center of the American
bulge toward Cologne. First Army
troops fought to cross the Inde
River to the eastern part of the
town, but were brought under heavy
mortar and artillery fire. Heavy
guns supported the doughboys A
front dispatch said the battle was
one of the most intense small-scale
artillery duels since the start of the
offensive.
The western part of linden, road
junction on the main highway be-
tween Geilenkirchen and Duren.
had been cleared of Germans in
house-to-house fighting. except for
one pocket of infantrymen support
ed by tanks and howitzers.
Ninth Army troops fought into
Linnich and surged back into the
lost towns of Roerdorf and Floss
dorf to the south.
Linnich, Julich and Duren form
three main buttresses of the Ger
mans Roer River line.
Win High Ground.
First Army elements won high
ground within 1000 yards west of
Gey, 4 miles southwest of Duren,
and made moderate gains toward
Brandenberg, miles southwest Of
Duren.
Battle planes raked German tanks
and defenses along the Cologne
Plain front
CA Berlin broadcast asserted
the Germans. had recaptured the
town of Lindern, ~ miles north
east of Geilenkirchen. Today's
Allied communique, however, de-
clared a German counterattack
at Lindern had been repulsed.
The broadcast described the
battle before Cologne as a death
mill, and said in most sections
of the Aachen front 10000 to
10000 soldiers are facing each
other on every kilometer (5s of
mile) of the front'O.
Holland Front Quiet.
On the British front in Holland
all was quiet save for patrol activi-
ties. A British staff officer declared
the Germans all along the western
front were suffering more casual
ties than they could replace with
trained men. Company strength in
some cases rs down to 40 men, COM
pared with the normal 100, he said
On the Sd Army front, the 99th
Division was pushing slowly toward
Saarlautern. Troops of the 5th Di-
vision advanced to within mile
and quarter of the German border,
and men of the 80th Division
knocked back several counterattacks
8 miles southwest of Saarbrucken.
The 4th Armored Division showed
its Saar bridgehead another mile
north to 3 miles due east of Sarre
n