Evening star., 1944-10-15
Yanks Drive On Heart Of Aachen
From Three Directions; German
Relief Columns Badly Battered
Long Lines Of
Civilians Pour
Into u. S. Lines
MAP on Page AL
Ey the Associated Press.

LONDON, OCC. l4.-Amerlcan
1st Army troops tonight con-
verged from three directions on
the heart of Aachen, which at
least for the moment was left to
its fate by German relief col
umns so badly mauled outside
the stricken city that for "a
hours they have been unable to
muster a counterattack.
From the northeast, the east and
the southeast, the infantry dug the
dwindling German garrison from
houses and cellars, moving slowly
through the rubble to hold down
casualties, while long lines of civil
ians streamed from the burning city
into the American positions.
The 1st Army could afford to take
its time, for the half-mile wide cor
ridor leading from the city was as
good as closed after a few small
units we're believed to have slipped
In last night to swell the garrison
to perhaps 1000 men.
Relief Divisions Battered.
Furthermore, the crack German
infantry and tank divisions which
threw the British out of the Arm
hem bridgehead, then were rushed
south to Aachen, lay bleeding in
the fields northeast of the city,
numbed by aerial and artillery
bombardment that knocked out
more than 80 tanks.
Every effort to bring up more
tanks in an attempt to throw the
Americans from hard-won positions
at the entrance to the great Ger
man plain had been frustrated, a
high American officer said.
British I'd Army troops to the
north, moving up their lines toward
the Mas River facing Germany
midway between Arnhem and
Aachen, hammered out a half-mile
gain south of Overflow. They
fought through mire across the
bodies of Germans who refused to
yield an inch.
Canadians on the seaward flank
were under large-scale assault from
strong enemy forces who were try
ing to drive them from positions
astride the south Beveland cause
way, where Dominion troops have
cut off escape by land for Germans
on the islands in the Schelde Es-
tuary.
Junction Is Near.
Driving a mile south from their
Schelde beachhead west of Antwerp,
the Canadians were little more than
2 miles from linking up with COM
rades clinging to the eastern end of
a bridgehead over the Leopold
Canal.
On the southern end of the 460-
mile front, the German communique
said the American 7th Army had
gone over to the attack in strong
force on a broad front east of
Remiremont, 80 miles north of
Belfort.
There was no Allied confirmation
of this, but it was reported officially
that the French 1st Army in this
area in an advance of about 3 miles
from previously reported positions
was nearing Cornimont, only II
miles from the vital Schlucht Pass
through the Vosges Mountains to
the Rhine.
The American Sd Army cleared
the Germans from three -fourths of
the Forest of Parroy, a sore point
east of Nancy from which the Ger
mans have been mounting counter
attacks, but no other changes were
reported.
Nazis Boast Of Strength.
A spokesman for the German
high command took advantage of
the lack of important Allied ad-
vances to boast tonight that I'VE
shall use the sixth winter of war
to turn to the offensive next spring
and to carry war back again to
French soil.'
The Paris National Radio Joined
this war of words by claiming that
Free German Committee had en-
listed more than half of the German
prisoners of war interned in France
In move 30 fight the Nazis.
Allied planes, which had wrecked
much of Aachen, turned their guns,
rockets and bombs on targets be-