Evening star., 1944-12-24
War Review
Nazis Risk All in Big
Offensive
By Howard p. Bailey

German Field Marshal Won Rundstedt,
faced with steadily advancing Allied
troops on the western front and the
prospects of resumed Russian offensive
on the eastern front now that the plains
of Poland are becoming sufficiently
frozen to permit heavy campaigning.
has taken a desperate gamble, his SUI
preme gamble Gen. Eisenhower describes
1t, and has launched powerful offen-
sive which has driven the American lst
Army back deeply into Belgium and
Luxembourg. The offensive, although
blunted at the week end, is filled with
grave danger to the Allied positions
Pouring in possibly as many as is
divisions, including number of panzer
units under an air umbrella exceeding
anything the Nazis have mustered in
many months, Won Rundstedt has badly
mauled a number of American divisions
and has moved the American line back
to a depth of 40 or more miles at the
greatest point of advance.
Timing his drive to take advantage of
Allied air force largely on the ground,
the Nazi commander has his offensive
rolling over wide front extending from
a point south of the capital of Luxem-
bourg to the Belgian town of Rocherath,
below Aachen. So far the f1anks held
by the American 9th and Patton's Sd
have stood firmly and already units of
these two armies are putting on the
pressure in the hope that the Nazis may
overeXtend themselves and be caught
in trap should the 9th and Sd make
contact. This -be-hoped-for goal is
still far from attainment.
Great numbers of W. rockets are
falling in the American lines and rear
areas and have complicated the problem
man thrust.
Nazi claims include the capture of
$4,000 American prisoners. information
concerning which is not forthcoming
from Allied headquarters.
A break through American lines has
not occurred excepting by small groups
of tanks, but the situation is critical and
holds the possibility of greatly pro-
longing the war in Europe The heroic
delaying action of the LIST Army has
permitted the summoning of reserves
from the 9th, which may turn the tide
OF battle. Clearing weather brought out
Allied air might and scores of Nazi
planes were shot down as the week
ended.
The Nazis report that a new Russian
offensive has been opened in Latvia, and
the Russian Embassy in Washington
states that time has been set for the
reopening of a Russian drive across
Poland with the intention of carrying
forward without halt into Germany.
Russian units in Hungary and Slovakia
are pushing steadily forward and the
Nazis admit nervousness over the pos
sibility that the Reds may seal off Buda-
pest from the rear and then move along
the Danube toward Austria.
The Italian front was largely quiet,
though the Canadians made some small
gains on the eastern end Of the line.
The war against the Japs continues
to 60 well, with Leyte almost COM
pletely in American possession and the
campaign on Mindoro moving so well
that five days after the landing on the
island an airfield had been put into
operation. Scores of B-29s battered
Nagoya on Honshu Island twice during
the week, striking at important aircraft
factories while others bombed Hankow
in occupied China and Mukden in Man.
chukuo. Three Super Forts dropped in
cendiaries on Tokyo.
le
along the Kwangsi- railroad,
moving southwark in the face of deter
mined Jap resistance. In Burma, the
two British fronts were linked when
Royal Scots Fusiliers made contact with
British 18th Army units.