The Wilmington morning star., 1944-09-02

The fortress of verdun, where
300, 900 Frenchmen bled to save
France in the first world war, fell
with hardly shot after armored
infantry swept through the Ar
come forest Still SCARED and
scared by the agonies of battles
generations old-without a single
casualty.
1t was no longer battle. It
was simply a race for the Ger
mans trying to get into positions
in the rusty Siegfried line before
the American lightning strikes.
Where the Germans elected to
stand, they were overwhelmed by
flying columns, bombed and STRAIT
ed and pelted from the skies by
pamphlets calling on them to Sur
render now
Battle columns streaming into
Lorraine may now have brought
the city Of Metz, less than Is
miles from Germany, within their
artillery sights. -->
Already hard-riding patrols may
have lanced across the Belgian
border five miles north Of Sedan
and plunged into the Ardennes
forest, out Of which the German
hordes poured four years ago to
subjugate France.
From go to rs miles to the
northeast lies Prussia, with her
great Rhineland industrial CEN
| ter.
On the left the on-ushing Brit
ish seized Arras, II miles from
the Belgian border, while the
American First army was no more
than 10 miles away after taking
Montcornet in an 18-mile drive
from Laon.
/ (The Stockholm newspaper It'd
ningen declared the Germans and
their Belgian fascist friends were
in flight from Brussels amid
''Scenes similar to Paris a few
weeks ago." the Office Of War In
formation reported.)
Triumphant Canadians captured
Dieppe to wipe out the memory of
their bloody landing of 1912 and
dashed Is miles On up the coast
to LIE Treport.
Americans at the southeastern
end of the swift-moving 2OO-mile
front thrust 16 miles southeast Of
St. Dizier to Joinville on the road
to Belfort and the gap that leads
along another road to Germany.
After driving % miles north Of
Reims and occupying Rethel, other
American forces engaged the
Germans in the Grand Foret de
Signy, but it was unlikely that the
enemy here was occupied in more
than a rea-guard action.
A front line dispatch said the
American First army was attack
ing toward Mons, seven miles IN.
side Belgium, where fierce battle
was fought in the first world war.
Highways were loaded with Ameri-
can trucks. all hurrying north.
The Clandestine Belgian press
called on Belgian patriots to re-
double their blows against the
Germans.
| 1t. Gen. George S. Patton's
Third army at Verdun and St.
Miniel were on the historic soil
where their fathers rs years ago
launched. the big offensive that
drove Germany to her knees.
With him, it was revealed, was
the veteran Goth infantry division.
which fought at Ve-dun and ST.
Mihiel in the last war.
Other units now identified az
driving on Germany are the
Fourth Armored division, which
earlier sealed off the Brest PERM
sula, and the Seventh Armored.
and the Fifth, 35th and 8Oth Infan-
try divisions.
Tine Germans were taking terri
BILE punishment from the skies.
One group of Allied fighters alone
reported they shot up 20 German
troop trains in Flanders and tho
Pas-De-Calais area. Ninety tvs
locomotives were hit.
The Canadians. loose on the
Channel coast. closed to within
three miles Ct Abbeville. the Som.
me river city which the British
are approaching from the south.
east.