The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-11-22

ress of the French 1st Army up the west bank of the Rhine from the Swiss border However, the Germans were revealed to have unleashed a counter-attack south of Before to- ward Delle in a nattempt to break through to the Swiss frontier and cut of the French Rhine river spearhead.
 French forces also had penetrated Mulhouse 25 miles east of Belfort, but htere was no confirmation of Swiss reports that they had cap- tured that city along with Colmar, g miles tao the north. GA Paris broadcast said MulhouSe was en- circled.)
 Swiss dispatches also said a Ger man garrison of 300 was holding out in Huningue, at the southeastern tip of the French German border and across the Rhine from the Swiss town of Basel.
 Sixth Army group headquarters said the American 7th and French lSt armies together had liberated 1,593 square miles of eastern France along with 500 towns and villages and countless roadside ham, lets in the past week alone. The 7th Army alone has captured 1000 prisoners.
 On the 7th Army's northern flank It. Gen. George S. Patton'S Ameri- can 3rd army captured the Magi- not Line fortress town of Pont- | TNiarrn 1,oilnC ocf AF NHnf1 nine miles from the frontier.
 In Metz itself, Patton's men cleared the island of Chambiere just inside the city and one of the last two pockets of enemy resistance. General Kittel commander of Metz was found wounded in hospital on Chambiere.
 Saulcy Holds Out
 The smaller island of Saulcy, de- tended by 900 Germans, continued to hold out despite increasing Amer ican pressure.
 Outside Metz, Fort Queleus in the southeastern outskirts sur- rendered to the American 5th Di- vision, but five other mapor forts in the outer defense ring continued to resist. Many forts indicated they personally were willing to quit, but lacked authority to surrender.
 It remained to be seen whether Kittel, commander of the 462nd ad- ministratvie district, would order his remaining forces to cease fight ing.
 Thirty miles northeast of Metz, Patton's 10th armored division in inside Germany repulSed the first German attempt to hurl it back the Merzig area two to three miles across the border in a two-and-a- half hour battle.
 Other clements of the 10th divi- sion pushed two and a half miles inside Germany to the TunSdort area, seven miles northwest of Merzig. Patton's tanks were in- side Germany on Il to 15-mlle front and in the Merzig area had come up against the main defenses of the Siegfried Line.
 It. Gen. William H. Simpsons 9th Army northeast of Aachen was making slow prograss against stiff enemy resistance and huge mine fields covering the approaches to the Roer river, where dispatches said the Germans were digging in for a last stand west of the Rhine.
 However, the 9th Army captured nine towns yesterday, including within sight of the Roer, three miles west of Julich and 9 miles west of Cologne, and Englesdort, two miles southwest of Julich and also 25 miles west of Cologne.
 Jack Frankish, United Press war correspondent at the front, said the Germans were suffering heavy casualties in the battle of Nutrition west of the Roer, but added thaG American losses also were consider able.
 Metz fell officially today to Lieu tenant General George s. Patton's Third Army. All German resistance ended at 9:45 a. r1., EWT., tWd days afte rthe collapse of all opposition except die-hard pockets. The NaNs still were holding out in some or Metz's outlying forts.
 On the Cologne front the Ger mans threw artillerymen and en- gineers into the line as infantrymen today in an attempt to halt L1euten- ant General Courtney H. Hodges First Army drive which pushed more than a mile northeast of Heistern, II miles east of Aachen. Other units advanced through Hel- rath, mile northeast of Eschweiler, into which assault forces had ushed nearly half mile.
 British Second Army forces near ed Wurm, four miles northeast ot Geilenkirchen and 26 miles south west of Dusseldord, and further northwest were within four miles of Venlo in Holland. U. s. Ninth Army troops captured Merzenhausen, 25