Evening star., 1944-12-17
Nazis Counterattack 1st Army
At II Points on 7O-Mi|e Front;
Yanks Gain 9 Miles on Mindoro
Armored Division
Also Hurled at
U. S. 9TH Army
By the Associated Press.
SUPREME ALLIED HEAD

SUPREME ALLIED HEAD
QUARTERS, Paris, Dec. 49,
German counterattacks were
opened today at a dozen points
on the 70-mile American 1st
Army front between Duren and
Trier, the heaviest fighting oc-
curing in the Ardennes Forest.
The counter thrusts were an ap-
parent effort to draw off pressure
against the Duren sector.
Although the full extent of the
assault cannot yet be determined,
it included attacks at widely sepa-
rated points including the area of
Monschau, the neighborhood OF
Krewinkel, miles north of
Prum, at Peterskirche, IA miles
southwest of Prum, and Echternach,
10 miles northwest of Trier.
The drive was pointed at the
Ardennes region or mountain forests
through which the German Army
passed in 1910.
Lauterbourg Stand Smashed.
The Germans drew an armored
division from another front and
hurled it at the United States 7th
Army, which poured more troops
into the Reich's Palatinate after
smashing the enemy stand in the
French frontier city of Lauterbourg.
All along a front of more than
200 miles, where four American
armies have invaded Germany, the
enemy loosed artillery barrages
which reached an intensity of 100
shells an hour on some 1st Army
sectors, and up to $50 an hour on
the Sd Army front in the Saar basin.
The thunder of explosions set off
by the Germans destroying the last
bridges across the Roer River indi-
Gated that they had given up hope
Of holding back the 1st Army on the
west bank of that stream.
The Germans counterattacked for
the first time in two weeks against
the 9th Army north of Lindern, but
were thrown back.
CA German broadcast said the
9th Army had turned on giant
loudspeakers which blared out
advertising of an impending
offensive9
Crossing Near Sarreguemines.
The Sd Army bored 300 yards
deeper into the Siegfried Line in
the Western Saarla1d, and infantry
crossed the southern border of the
basin at a new point nine miles east
of Sarreguemines.
Heavy fighting inside Germany
was reported on 1t. Gen. Alexander
M. Patch's 7th Army front as In
fantry took on the first Siegfried
Line pillboxes and supporting ar
tillery answered the Siegfried's guns.
(Seventh Army's doughboys are
driving deeper into Germany and
have seized Scheibenhard, Ger
man border town near the Rhine,
and number of Reich villages,
dispatch from Troburn Want
and Robert c. Wilson, Associated
Press correspondents, reported.
They also said that Wissembourg
and Lauterbourg, Alsatian border
cities, had been seized by the
THU
There were four crossings on
17-mile front into the old Bavarian
Palatinate, region of war indus
try and agriculture, and already
the 7th was drawing off German
strength and relieving pressure far
ther north on the Western Front.
Might Outfiank saar.
The German high command was
aware that to leave the Siegfried
Line lightly defended here was to
invite break through that not only
would menace such arsenal cities as
Ludwigshafen and Mannheim, 35
miles farther down the Rhine, but
might outflank the entire Saar
Basin, coal and steel region of
the first Importance.
The panzer division reinforcement
rumbled into battle as the Siegfried
Line guns poured heavy fire on
the advancing Americans.
The 45th Division was believed
to be about 2 miles inside the Pa
latlnate west of Wissembourg, the
l03d Division invaded in the same
general area, and the 18th forged
Two bridgeheads across the border
line Lautern River near Lauter-
bourg, near the Rhine.
The heaviest fighting appeared to
be on the 79th's sector, where the
Germans had the advantage of the
bunker-studded forest of Bien Wald.
Twenty-three miles west of Wis
sembourg around Bitche the Ger
mans were fighting fiercely from
the Maginot Line, swinging the for
tiflcations' guns around and blazing
away at the Americans attacking
from the south.
Diversionary Attacks.
Other diversionary attacks were
aimed by the Germans far to the
south In Asace around Colmar, but
there the French 1st Army and
elements of the United States 7th
held foothill positions and, fighting
from behind flooded streams, could
not be dislodged easily.
Rapidly squeezing the Germans
from their last footholds west of
the Roer, the 1st Army,s 83rd Di-
vision captured Berzbuir, near the
river three miles south of Duren.
L. >4l
yards opposite that river strong
hold.
The 5th Armored Division coming
up on the flank occupied more of
the Roer's west bank.
In the Monschau sector 20 miles
southwest of Duren the I'd and 18th
Divisions pressed eastward along
Three additional men from, the