The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-10-09
YANKS FIGHTING
IN GERMAN CITY
Third Army Advances Six
Miles On Front Between
Metz And Nancy
Bv THOBURN WANT

10y 4xxOO ~ ASA> w AAA
LONDON, Monday, Oct. 9.
-(P)-While a powerful new
offensive put the U. S. Third
.rmy six miles ahead on a 20
nile front between Metz and
Nancy last night, the hard
hitting American First army
vas on the verge of throwing
! moose around the Germans
At Aachen.
Fighting inside Aachen itself
was reported in three London
this morning, but there
was no confirmation of this from
Allied headquarters. The British
papers, attributing their reports to
dispatches but not giving
their source, said American troops
had entered Aachen from the
southeast and that house-to-house
fighting ragged in the city.
Dispatches from First Army
headquarters reported only that
the city was almost isolated by
American troops encircling it.
= ''Major Assault
The German radio said the
Americans had thrown two fresh
tank divisions into the battle north
of Aachen where attacks now
have assumed the character Of Z
major assault" wy
The American First Army's new.
est assault, launched before dawn
from east of Aachen, carried to
within 1000 yards Of the enemy's
last road to Cologne, above the
rubbed city, other troops from the
'Ubach breakthrough in the Sieg-
fried line, struck a mile deeper
south, bringing in the upper jaw
of the wise.
Even as the Aachen front blaz.
ed along 30mile sector, the Third
Army to the south in France struck
between Metz and Nancy on 20
mile front, quickly topping eight
towns in a six-mile advance. But
ground was lost farther north in
the, furious, bloody struggle for
Fort Driant which guards the
southwestern approaches to Metz.
Planes supported the two Amer.
lean army drives.
A small task force with tanks
and self-propelled guns probed the
defenses of Aachen itself, biggest
city encountered in the invasion Of
Germany: Thirty-seventh city OF
the pre-war Reich, it was the size
of Nashville, Tenn, or Hartford,
Conn.
With a little more progress, the
city will be pinched off. an Amer
lean officer said.
Night Assault
Staging one of their rare night
assaults, 1t. Gen. Courtney H.
Hodges men southeast of Aachen
caught the Germans by surprise,
hit up east of the besieged city,
and late today seized Crucifix Hill,
dominating the ground near Haar.
en-, IA miles northeast Of Aachen.
They were within little more than
half mile Of the Aachen-C Cologne
road, sweeping that last escape
route for the 1>azis in Aachen with
shell and heavy machine gun fire.
The strength of the Aachen dc.
tenders was not known, but Reu.
tiers dispatch estimated it as low
as 1900 S. S. troops
In the upper wing Of an Aachen
squeeze. First Army men who
scored the Siegfried breakthrough
at Ubach cleaned out Alsdorf,
seized Alden, and thrust within
four miles of their comrades near
Haaren.
A three-pronged German coun-
ter-attack toward Alsdorf was
flung back. Generally resistance
north of Aachen appeared to be
melting.
Nearing Duren
In the Hurtgen forest area SOUTH
east of Aachen, other doughboys
advanced through the dense pine
and were within Z
niles of Duren, 20 miles from
Cologne.
Lt.-Gen. George S. Patton's Third
Army attack was aimed at wip.
ny out a shallow German salient.
The towns of Clemery, Lixieres,
,errieres, Jeandelaincourt, Moiv.
'ons, Fessieux, Ajoncourt and Ar.
aye ct Han were captured in 4
sector a dozen to 20 miles below
Metz.
In Fort Driant, most formidable
,astion protecting Metz, dough
,oys battled against odds, and {
lazi night counter-attack erased
lalf the Americans 100-yard gain
II Saturday inside the mile and 4
lalf long fortress.
Germans made sallies from bulk.
leaded underground passages, and