Jackson advocate. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1939-current, 1944-09-02
Fighting Breaks
Through Fields
OF World War |
Patton Throws
Three Army Corps
Into Marine Break

I1If1A|NE SAAAsA ASASr0t
G. F.-(SNS)-An American tank
army swept VIGOROUSLY across the
battlefields of World War I Tues
day, broke through the Marine and
Aisne River lines and captured
historic scissors and Chateau
Thierry in a mile-an-hour drive on
Belgium and the German frontier.
Racing more than 40 miles east
and northeast across fields and
armlands where the AEF OF 1913
ought and won the bloodiest battles
in American military history, 1t.
Gen. George S. Pattons u. S. Third
Army troops collapsed almost with
out opposition and plunged on
across the Aisne at scissors.
The enemy fought hard for the
Aisne River crossing but was rid
den down and dispersed by Pat
on's Wild-riding armor.
TEAR THROUGH
BELLEAU WOOD
Scissors, where the Americans
launched their great counter Often
sive in July 1918, fell to fast
moving tank and infantry column
that burst across the Marine west
of Chateau hierry, drove through
Belleau Wood and Chateau hierry
and then swung % miles north to
the AiSne.
Fifteen miles east or scissors,
the Americans battered their way
forward to the Vesle River, six
miles short of the Aisne, at F'ismes,
here the German radio said seri-
lis fighting was il progress.
Fifty -four miles beyond scissors
lay the Belgian border, while bare
20 miles to the west was the his
toric forest Of Conpiegne, where
the 1918 arlaistice was assigned and
where Adolf Hitler imposed his
conquerer's truce or France in 1910.
On their right flank, other Anne
rican armored units swept east
ward along the valley of the Marine
driving Is miles beyond captured
Chateau-Thierry to within two
miles of Epernay.
RAIL HUB SMASHED
A supporting column drove along
the south bank of the Marine, and
crossed the river at two points south
east of ChalonS, 1872 miles beyond
Epernay, and unofficial reports
said the Americans also had broken
into the vital railway hub of Vitry-
lie Francois, 1872 miles southeast
of Chalons.
Headquarters spokesman indicat-
ed that the tide of American tanks,
troops and guns were striking on
beyond Scissors and Chalons in
bid to collapse the entire Nazi de-
Tense position in Northern France.
Barely 25 miles beyond Chalons,
which the German said Patton's
men had entered, lay the Forest of
the Argonne and beyond that his
toric Verdun and the Alasce-Lor-
l 1liC lllfcl 1Ood W AICA
AS FAST IN MANEUVERS
Patton's troops were speeding
through broken enemy defenses as
swiftly as on peacetime maneuvers,
with their rate of advance appar-
emily only checked by the mobility
of their supply columns. 1t was in
dicated the enemy had nothing left
to make stand short of the Sieg-
fried Line.
Berlin commentators said Patton
had thrown three army corps, to-
falling 10 divisions possibly 10000
men-into the break trough north
Of the Marine with another three
divisions heading eastward from
Troyes toward Alsace-Lorraine and
the Saar Valley.
AS the American Third Army
struck, British, Canadian and Anne
rican units north of Paris sTlrged
across the Seine bridgehead, and
brought the river port of Rouen I'M
der rifle fire and sent their tank
columns stabbing northWard for the
robot bomb coast.
The Vernon and Nantes bridge
heads were linked up, giving the
Allies a solid 30-miIe foothold on
the northeast bank of the Seine,
and headquarters said armored
spearheads and been pushed out IL
miles beyond the river Cantiers.
Hundreds of Allied Warplanes
sWarmed out through driving
rainstorm to L.m5 and machinegun