The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-09-01
The Wor On M0nyFrOnts
BY LOUIS F: KEEMLE 2: VI

through the Argonne Forest and across the Mouse to capture Verdun, today while the lst Army to the north also crossed the Mouse be. tween Sedan and Charleville and may already have penetrated the Ardennes Forest across the Belgian border.
 Tn southern France the Allies were driving the beaten Germans up the Rhone valley and had almost corl1- plete control of the Mediterranean coast as the French drove to within less than 50 miles of the Spanish border and the Americans to with In ten miles of Italy.
 British and Polish troops on the Italian front penetrated the Ger man Gothic Line at three points where it's outer defenses reach the Adriatic coast.
 The Russians drove beyond fiber. ated Bucharest in Romania to the Danube river border of Bulgaria, streaned through the mountain passes towards Hungary and were headed for q junction with Marshal TitoS forces in Yugoslavia.
 Battle of France
 The battle of France was almost over and the battles of Belgium and Germany about to begin as the Allies drove the broken Germans in retreat from the channel coast to the Ardennes. The two American armies on the east were meeting only negligible opposition, while the British and Canadians towards the sea rolled steadily up the robot bomb coast against rear guard resistance,
 More than l20 launching plat forms for the flying torpedoes that have been spreading death in south' ern England had already been oyer' run. One British column smashed l4 n1iles across the Somnle river to Maily after capturing Amiens In a 40-mile advance in the previous 24 hours
 The Germans were in retreat in the coastal area but in fairly good order. Tn the east, however, the rec treat was described in front-line dispatches as rout, with demoral- ized enemy forces throwing away their equipment in frantic race for their own frontiers.
 General Patton'S Third Army reached Verdun and pressed on, less than 50 miles from the German border, after Q record advance of 06 miles from ReimS to Verdun in a little under 24 hours. Tn the last war 1t took the Allies four years to do that and cost them hundreds of thousands of lives.
 Only 35 miles beyond Verdun lies Metz, bastion of the Maginot Line. It. Gen. Courtney Hodges First Army to the north already was in the Maginot Line defenses around Sedan and Charleville, only few miles from the Belgian border. It was through the Sedan gap that the Germans broke in io40 to defeat France.
 On the eastern front, the Ger mans were rapidly being claered out of Romania. Soviet tanks and mech- anized cavalry swept 35 miles beyond Bucharest to the Danube near the inland port of Giurgiu and thou- sands of Germans were being pock. eted against the Bulgarian border.
 If they cross, Moscow has insisted that the Bulgarians, now seeking peace terms, disarm them. If they do not, the Russians may pursue them into Bulgaria.
 NOrthward
 Northward, the Russians renewed their offensive northwest Of Warsaw in Poland in what may be the be- giuuing of Q full-scale offensive against the capital. Nine towns and villages were captured, including CegielnIa. nine miles north east of the Warsaw suburb of Praga.
 Clearing weather permitted re. sumption of the Allied air offensive over the continent today. and heavy bombers crossed the Channel in force for the first time in three days.
 Although e part of the Abbot bomb coast of France has been cleared, some of the missiles, ap- parently from Belgium and Holland, still were coming over England to- day. :.
 Tn the Pacific, 1t was announced that Allied bombers had sunk or damaged five more Japanese vessels, Including Q destroyer, in the Dutch East Indies on Tuesday night, rais- Ing to 24 the total for two days.
 It. Gen. Willard r. Harmon, new commander of army air forces in the Pacific, predicted at 6 press conference the mass bombing of Japan by as many as 1000 planes at d time, and said he looks to the eventual occupation of the enemy's Saoy,nA iaiafidR.