Evening star., 1944-11-06
WITH AMERICAN TROOPS
MAP on Page A-5.)

BY the Associated Press.
| LONDON, Nov. 6.-Allied as
saultS today threw the Nazis
back across the Mas (Meuse) }
River along a 50-mile front to
the sea-marred only by two
small enemy pockets. British
field officers declared the Ger
man 18th Army had been half
destroyed in the fierce West
Holland offensive which began
October %.
AS the British and Canadian
Armies drew up to the water barrier
10 miles south of Rotterdam on a
potential new assault line, the Brit
ish estimated that $1,000 Germans
had been killed, captured and
wounded while being driven north
ward from 25 to Is miles.
To the east, the American list
Army kept up its hard pressure from
Hurtgen to Schmidt. Although gains
in the last 36 hours were measured
in yards, the potential menace tied
down hastily mustered German re-
serves and dipped deeply into the
reduced German supply of tanks.
(An NBC broadcast from Ger
many said already this morn
ing the Germans have launched
three counterattacks from three
directions in a renewal of the
battle of Schmidt.
t"German planes are appear
ing all over the place" the
broadcast added. "The serious
ness with which the enemy re-
CARDS this situation is evidenced
by the fact that he is opposing
us around Schmidt not with
second-rate soldiers, but with
crack troops, we'll trained-the
very best he has'D
Arnhem Report Unconfirmed.
There was no Allied confirmation
of the German radio announcement,
broadcast yesterday and repeated
today, that the Allies have landed
air-borne units again in the Arnheim
area But Field Marshal Sir B. L.
/ lioW itOlo Vic
line of the Mas in Western Holland
except for two small pockets at
Moerdijk and Willemstad. Both
were about miles wide and 2 miles
deep.
Declaring Field Marshal Walther
Won Models 18th Army had suffered
serious setback" British Army
spokesmen said British and Cana
dian troops had bagged $4,000 pris-
cners in their drive The campaign
freed 1900 square miles of Dutch
territory and $4,000 Netherlanders.
Already Allied dredges and mine
sweepers were clearing the West
Schelde approach to Antwerp.
West of the two German pockets,
the Nazi rout became more COM
plete as Allied troops swarmed over
Tholen Island and the st. Phillips
land Peninsula to the north which
forms the southern bank of the
mouth of the Mas.
Most of Island Seized.
Allied troops seized all of Walche-
rem Island except the small port of
Veere on the north coast and the
town of Middleburg in the center.
Won Model attempted to defend
Southwestern Holland and the sea
gate to Antwerp with an army OF
approximately 10000, the British
said.
OF the $4,000 prisoners, $4,000
were taken in the pocket south OF
the Schelde and 5000 on the
Schelde Islands.
The two pockets at Moerdijk and
Willemstad were believed to hold no
more than 1000 or 5000 troops.
There is no doubt Won Models
army has been greatly depleted" one
British spokesman said, cor that he's
been mauled into serious defeat
His divisions have been cut to almost
a quarter their strength
In probing attacks, Allied infantry
and tanks kept pushing the enemy
all along the front, scoring gains
against stiff resistance around Mel
jel in Eastern Holland, southeast of
Aachen, above Metz, and in the
Vosges Mountains.
In the Hurtgen forest area south
east Of Aachen, where Yank infan-
try has made the deepest penetra-
ton inside Germany, American
troops who were thrown out of
Schmidt by an enemy counterat-
tack mopped up German units in
the woods mile west of that town
and scored minor gains elsewhere.
hter-bombers blasted German
tanks and infantry near Schmidt in
support of the American attack
which was hindered by extensive
mineflelds south of the town OF
Hurtgen.
Mosquitoes of the I'd Tactical Ali
Force yesterday sank 10 barges
loaded with men and equipment
crossing the Mas.
On Walcheren Island, the mosj
bitterly defended German position ir
Holland, the enemy garrison still
fought savagely for Middleburg, but
British Canadian troops were clos
ing in, and all the German guns
i(see WESTERN FRONT, Page A-sJ