The Wilmington morning star., 1944-10-13
GERMANS PUTTING
PLANES INTO FIGHT
Continued from Page One)

Of Aachen after driving the enemy
from the northeastern suburb. but
| supreme headquarters said il
might be anywhere from 100 to L.
900 yards.
AL day long a crack German
division with 20 to rs tanks bea'
without success against Amerl
can lines north Of Aachen, trying
to relieve the doomed garrison
through a mile-wide corridor be
tween the siege positions.
The assault waves broke in 9
terrible barrage from American
artillery, including 250-mm and
eight-inch guns, which girdle the
corridor.
Nothing has come through that
corridor in any size in any dlrec'
tion," declared a high ranking
U. S. First army officer. Ger.
tainly the Germans have not and
are not evacuating Aachen. Try to
tell that to the boys up there who
are doing the fighting and give
them laugh"
The German radio, still pledging
resistance to the death, described
the Aachen action as "the great
est battle ever fought on the Wes-
tern front"
Associated Press Correspondent
William S. White reported from
outside Aachen that doughboys
with rifles and grenades cleared
the Germans from the factory sub
urb of Schlachhof on the northeast
and were harassed only by the
sporadic fire of snipers.
But American commanders held
their troops back from the big as
sault on the main section OF this CT
tv at the frontier Of Germany
while for the second day the big
guns ringing Aachen poured in cas-
cades of steel and bombers struck
in waves at 15-minute intervals.
The enemy garrison, under Hit
ler's orders to stand and die, cow
cred with from 5000 to 10000 civil
lians in the ancient caves, base
ments and sewers Of this city
which Charlemagne made the seat
Of empire.
Through the smoke and rain a
few enemy soldiers and civilians
ignoring the Nazi dictum, slipped
through into the American lines,
but the groups were small, the
largest numbering about so, White
said.
Meanwhile, action flared in Hol-
land, where the Germans were re-
ported to have blown up more than
10 miles of quays and docks in that
country's second largest city OF
Rotterdam.
Roads south and east out Of Rot-
terdam were clogged with German
TRANSPORT, a front dispatch said,
indicating the Germans were pre-
pairing to pull out of northwestern
Holland or were shifting the bulk
of their estimated 100000 garrison
southwark to meet the Canadians
and British.
In favor of the theory that they
were being called home for the IL
nal battles inside the Reich wal
the discovery by the British Sec.
ond army that the Germans had
abandoned abruptly a bridgeheao
IL miles wide on the south bank
of the Neder Rhine between Arm
hem and Rotterdam.
The U. S. Third army in north.
ern France slugged it out with
counter-attacking Germans north
Of Nancy and at Maizieres-Les'
Metz, six miles north Of Metz
where the enemy, had converted
Easements into anti-tank nests.
The U. S. Seventh army on the
southern end of the 460-mile front
repulsed counterblows around Ii
Thillot, Is miles north Of Belfort
and made limited advances
through the foothills of the Vosges
mountains north Of that strategic
doorway to the southern Rhine
land.
Most significant was the capture
of the village Of Sapois, only IL
miles west of Schlucht pass, one
of four main ones through the Vos-
ges. Schlucht pass is % miles north
of the gap at Belfort.
But the heaviest fighting any
where on the front ragged around
Aachen.
Two enemy columns in division
strength were turned back at dusk
yesterday in the area of Haaren.
the Allied comnaunique said, indi-
eating that the relief expedition &C.
tually had fought to within a mile
and half Of the besieged city be-
fore being repulsed.
Today heavy fighting broke out
six miles north of Aachen in the
area of Bardenberg, which for
days has been a bloody battlefield
This was the scene Of the main ef-
fort to relieve the trapped garri-
son, but the day-long attacks got
the Germans nowhere.
The Berlin radio, admitting
heavy German losses, said the Am
orleans summoned Hamethrowine
tanks in the bitter strggle.
The German radio declared tina
''if American hordes should car
ry out their threat to destroy
| Aachen, this jewel of culture, Ger
man resistance will only grow
even more fierce"
AS fires ragged in the stricken
city, refugees reported that watel