Evening star., 1944-10-23
British, Canadians
Advance in Drives to
Free Antwerp Port
BY the Associated Press.

LONDON, Oct. 23.-Six Allied
armies today pounded the Ger
man defenses from Holland to
Switzerland's border with an un-
ceasing pressure aimed at open
ing the eventual cracks which
will permit a smash to Berlin.
The rain of blows was not yet a
grand co-ordinated offensive, but
it was intended to hammer the
enemy line ever thinner and to mask
the timing and place of the main
attack.
The assault was on against the
shrinking South Schelde pocket
west of Antwerp, the Breda box
north of Antwerp, the hard-held
doorway from Aachen, the upper
entrance of the Saar Valley. and the
sharp-cloven Vosges Passes.
British Gain on 12-Mile Front.
The British I'd Army, striking in
three columns on a 12-mile front
from the western side of its Hol-
land salient, drove to within 3 to S
miles of the prize communications
hub of 'Shertogenbosch.
The Canadian Army swept on
from Esschen on the Dutch Belgian
border, 16 miles north of Antwerp,
after an 11-mile advance in two
days, and hammered methodically
toward Roosendaal, 4 miles ahead.
The strikes here, which were as
suming the proportions of a gen.
eral offensive to clear the sea lanes
to Allied-held Antwerp as a supply
port, had pressed the Germans
from two sides into the Breda box
a 40 bv 20 mile rectangle below the
Mas (Meuse) River.
The Canadians were about to out
flank the German coastal anchor at
Bergen Op Zoom, miles ahead.
Canadian Take Fort.
West of Antwerp the Canadians
captured Breskens and Fort Fred
erlk-Hendrik, mile farther west.
On the south side of the pocket, the
Canadians took Schoondijke, pinch
ing the Germans into a canal-sliced
area of only by 8 miles.
The German hold on the Schelde
fast was slipping with the capture of
the controlling enemy guns at
Breskens and Fort Frederik- Hen
dirk. Only one battery-there were
three two days ago-remained in
action in the Vlissingen (Flushing)
area on the north side of the estuary
after Allied heavy-bomber attacks.
1t. Gen. Courtney H. Hodges
American 1st Army pushed a mile
east toward Duren after its capture
of its first major German city,
Aachen, and was clearing the enemy
from the area around the village of
Aachen.
Nazis Expect Early Attack.
1t was here-other Americans last
were reported miles southeast of
Duren which is 20 miles from Co.
logne on the Rhine-that the Ger
mans apparently feared the main
blow was building up.
A Berlin broadcast said the 1st
Army seemed to have completed its
regrouping, brought up vast" tank
reinforcementS and could be expect
ed to attack at any moment some
where along l6-mile front between
Geilenkirchen and Stolberg.
The front from Aachen to the
Vosges was a rain-soaked mire, and
clouds at tree-top height also made
an immediate offensive seem un-
likely.
1t. Gen. George S. Patton's Sd
Army restlessly poked an attack at
the Germans toward the Upper Saar
Valley, capturing Bezange la Petite,
10 miles east of Nancy, and fighting
in Moncourt, 10 miles from the Saar.
Nazi Difficulty Increases.
The Germans fought under diff
culties, caught in the rear by
bombing which broke an old 300
foot earthen dam miles southeast
of Dieuze and flooded the Seille VAL
ley for 10 miles.
The American 7th Army also
wedged deeper into the approaches
to the Vosges Passes, northeast of
Epinal past captured Brouvelieures
and Bruyeres.
Three more villages, Domfaing.
Vervezelle and Belmont, were en-
tered, and 2 more miles sliced off
the distance to Bonhomme Pass, now
Is miles away.
The British drive was reinforced
by the jumpoff of third column at
midnight from the south side of the
Zuid Willemsvaart Canal, southeast
OF Shertogenbosch.
This attack gained 1000 yards by
daylight, reached the outskirts of
Sch1Jndel and cut the Schijndel-
Boxtel road about miles south of
'Shertogenbosch.
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