Evening star., 1944-11-17
MAP on Page A-3.)

LONDON, Nov. 17.-Six Allied
armies today battered out gains
along 400 miles of muddy front
In a massive test of German
staying power.
"a front dispatch said the Ger
mans sent Tiger tanks against
the 9th Army in counterattack
today but were thrown back with
loSses)
Perhaps 1000 900 men were en-
gagged on both sides in what may be
the last great battle of the war in
Western Europe. Prime Minister
Churchill has announced that be-
tween 100000 and 5000, 900 Allied
troops were in Europe two months
ago. The Germans were believed to
have 500, 200 men in the battle line
The American LIST and 9th Armies
lighting shoulder to shoulder in Sec
tors from 81 to % miles from
Cologne on the Rhine, deepened
their wedge In the Siegfried Line
by l to 2 miles and advanced to
within miles of Julich, a COM
munications center on the Cologne
plain.
Hundreds Of prisoners were cap
tured.
British Capture Wessem.
On the Americans left flank, the
British I'd Army in Holland capped q
12-mile advance in three days by
capturing Wessem, on the Mas
River below Roermond in Holland
and Buggenun, 3 miles north oi
Roermond. The British virtually
reached the Mas on 7-mile front
in this sector facing the German
border from 3 to Z miles farther east
High lighting the ever-present dam
ger of fresh offensive sweep around
the Germans northern flank. Allied
patrols slipped across the Lower
Mas between s Hertogenbosch and
Moerdijk. German artillery reacted
violently.
Pursued by British units mounted
In Kangeroos - armored vehicles
converted into troop carriers-the
Germans fell back SO rapidly in the
nat, canal-broken country near
Roermond that the Tommies lost
contact.
The Germans were reported with
drawing to their defense lines east
Of the Mas River.
Dozen Towns Captured.
A field dispatch from the 9th
Army sector said possibly a dozen
German towns were captured yes
terday in the first day of its attack
near Geilenkirchen, while the 1st
Army surged eastward from Aachen
in gains which averaged UP to
miles in the initial thrust.
The bombs and guns of hundreds
Of Allied planes, plus laundering
artillery barrage, began the assault
which nassed the force of two entire
armies on a front hardly Is miles
wide.
The two armies apparently caught
the enemy off-balance while Ger
man divisions were preparing an
attack on the 1st Army at Aachen
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the 1st Army pushed their breach
OF the Siegfried Line deeper, the
9th rolled forward through the
towns Of Immendorf, Floverich, Eu-
chen and Beggendorf, all east OF
Geilenkirchen, and representing
advances of about mile.
The onslaught OF the 1st and 9th
Armies into Germany was marked
by a considerable increase in the
German use of flying bombs, a front
line dispatch said.
To the south, 1t. Gen. George S
PattoHs Sd Army closed in to with
in IL miles of Metz on the north
south and west, by-passing German
forts, working into the suburbs and
fighting into the hangers of an air
field a mile southwest of the city
But the Germans apparently were
placing their reliance there on q
last-ditch stand inside the city with
its thick stone walls and narrow
streets. A prisoner was quoted as
saying the Germans were throwing
up barricades and stringing the
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