The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-12-19

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 On the American Seventh Army sector, It. Gen. Alexander M. Patch's infantrymen extended their foothold in the corner of the Rhine Palatinate to as much as four miles on a 25-mile front, while further south American and French troops of the French First Army scored local gains above Colmar and in the Vosges Mountains.
 But both sides were throwing their main effort into the blazing First Army front where the Ger man high command appeared to be stalking the Wehrmacht's best divi- sions on a desperate gamble to check the Americans west of the Rhine.
 Naz tank deStroyers, probably well behind their tank spearheads. were disclosed to have reached the area of Stavelot, 20 miles inside the Belgian border and about the same distance southeast of Liege.
 Front reports said Malmedy, five miles to the northeast, also had fal- len to the advancing Germans and United Press War Correspondent Jack Frankish reported that the American First Army's press camp was being evacuated from an un- named town northwest of Stavelot.
 American and British warplaneS raked the German assault front with bombs, gunfire and rockets yesterday in dawn to dusk attack that knocked out no enemy tanks and armored vehicles in what re- turning airmen described as the biggest mass slaughter since the Argentan-Falaise battle last sum- mer.
 The Germans took their losses and kept coming, throwing their own fighter -bombers against the American lines in considerable force 1 and opening up with blistering w. bomb barrage.
 One new weapon in the NaI ar- senal was revealed as highly SC. cret V-bomb which front correspon- dents were permitted to describe only as rocket-type projectile.
 First army SpokeSmen still were confident that the German attack would be contained and blunted within matter of days, and redi- culed Nazi propaganda boasts that the drive would reach Paris by Christmas.
 Nevertheless, it was acknowledged that when the extent of the Ger man advance finally is revealed il will come as a rude shock to many who thought the Wehrmacht had spent it's hitting power.
 The sweep into Belgium was known to have carried at least 21 miles since the take-off from Uden- breth, Germany, four days ago, and a front dispatch said the First Army lines still were swaying back at most points on the attack front from the Monschau forest to Lux embourg.
 There was no word on the Ger man penetrations of Luxembourg around Vianden, 35 miles south o1 Stavelot, and Echternach, 13 miles farther south.
 The pace of the German adance into Belgium, however, rivalled that of the best American progress across Eastern France last summer and suggested strongly that the First Army's resistance still was ex- tremely light.
 Brussels dispatches said alarm was spreading through Belgium as the German tide rolled westward, provoking clamor in some quarters for mobilization of the country $ disarmed resistance forces. There appeared little likelihood, however, that the Allied High Command would have to call on the guerrillas for aid.
 All non-combat personnel were being evacuated hurriedly to the west over roads lined with silent, sullen Belgian townspeople who made no effort to conceal their resentment at being left again to the marcy of the Nazis.
 Frankish reported, however, that the troops and equipment were nov ing pto meet the advancing Ger mans and emphasized that the ene- my has not yet achieved break through.
 Plenty of doughboys are slugging it out toe to toe with the best the Germans have to offer at this mo- ment," he wrote. Along every road American engineers are laying mines, cutting down trees for road blocks, emplacing machine guns and digging in tank destroyers to meet the Nazi push"
 The biggest and best Allied ef- fort, however, came from the Ameri- lean Ninth and British Second Tac- tical Air Forces. The Allied fliers blasted the German armored col- umns everywhere they appeared on the twisting hill roads and took on swarms of German fighters that fought to protect their ground 4IUTTN| -