Evening star., 1944-09-09
Sd Army Crushes Counterattack;
Siegfried Line Is Within Range
Of y. S. Big Guns Near Aachen
British Force
New Crossing
Of Albert Canal
MAP on Page A-3.)
BY the Associated Press.

t"~P Wv NSS A@c
By the Associated Press.
LONDON, Sept. 9.-Lt. Gen
George s. Patton's American Sd
Army crushed a large-scale Ger
man counterattack along the
Moselle River today and 1t. Gen
Courtney H. Hodges 1st Army
to the north moved within ar
tillery range of the Siegfried Line
in the key sector around Aachen,
German border city.
Farther north, the British I'd
Army held its 5-mile-deep bridge
head over the Albert Canal against
increasingly fierce resistance as the
Germans battled to stem this flank
ing sweep toward the northern an
Choir of the Siegfried Line at Cleve,
IS miles southeast of Amsterdam.
A frontline dispatch said that
British advance units forced a new
crossing of the canal in the area OF
Gheel, which Is Is miles east of
Antwerp. This crossing was three
or four miles northwest of a previ-
Gus bridgehead which had carried
to Bourg-Leopold.
Strong German forces attacked
the British line between Lille and
Gent today in desperate attempt
to break out of their coastal en-
trapment. but they were repelled
after furious fighting.
Three American armies-the Sd.
1st and 1t. Gen. Alexander Patch's
7th-and the British I'd Army closed
IN for the battle of Germany.
Americans Positions.
These were the positions of the
greatest American fighting force
ever massed on a foreign continent:
The 1st Army in Belgium drove be-
yond the captured Belgian fortress
city of Liege to less than Is miles
from the German frontier in the
vicinity of Aachen.
The Sd Army had crossed the
Moselle River in five places around
Metz and Nancy in Eastern France,
and had crushed a large-scale Ger
man counterattack.
The 7th Army which came up from
the Mediterranean was driving down
the last Is miles to the Belfort gap
north Of Switzerland.
Original Northern Anchor.
Aachen. toward which Gen.
Hodges 1st Army troops were driv-
ing. was the original northern
anchor of the Siegfried Line, but the
Germans in 1889 hastily extended
the line IS miles farther north to
Cleve. The German defense zone
now extends well in front of Aachen.
Gen. Patton's gasoline-thirsty 3rd
Army to the south was supplied by
a skytrain Of CAT transport planes
which landed on forward airstrips.
1t was lack OF supplies which first
slowed up the 3rd Army.
Supreme headquarters masked the
exact positions of the forward ele-
mentS of the four Allied armies.
concealing from the Germans which
columns were engaged in feints and
which would deliver the smashing
blow designed to breach the Nazi
line and fan out into the interior of
Germany.
The Germans we're rushing rein
forcements into the Siegfried Line,
but new American Black Widow air.
craft ranged into Germany at night,
smashing conveys.
30 to 40 Tanks Knocked Out.
American Sd Army troops knocked
out 80 to 40 German tanks in re-
pulsing the German counterattack
along the Moselle-the last water
barrier before the Saar Basin. More
than TOO prisoners were taken in
the first few hours.
The counterattack came down
from Luxembourg through the Ger
man strongpoint of Thionville, but
the attempt to catch Gen. Pattons
forces In the rear on the west bank
OF the Moselle was thwarted. Asso-
elated Press War Correspondent Yves
Gallagher reported that some of the
heaviest and most confused fighting
OF the campaign developed. German
dead and wounded Uttered the woods
when the smoke of battle cleared.
1t was apparent the Germans
were thowing major forces against
the Sd Army, forcing a large scale
battle in Northern France while
rushing preparations for the deter
mined stand at the Siegfried Line.
Every landing across the Moselle
was being heavily attacked by fresh
German troops and the American
bridgeheads are only few hundred
yards deep.
The scale and weight of the Ger
man counterattack, which is the
enemy's favorite form of defense,
indicated the Nazis had been able
to regroup their forces for a deter
mined defense.
The Sd Army now had captured
a total of $1,000 prisoners, wounded
an estimated $1,000 Germans and
killed $4,000 in France.
To the west, British, Canadians
and Poles closed in on the last of
the Nazi-held coast. They seized the
Belgian ports of Ostend and Nieu-
port without fight and hemmed
the Germans infn cro y,,nad x,onI~n4-