The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-11-08
Potton's S Men Toke Towns
BY J. EDWARD MURRAY

United Press War COrrespondent)
 Paris, Nov. 8.-(UP)-Ahe Ameri- can Third Army lashed out toward Germany on a broad Moselle valley front between Nancy and Metz to- day, broke thorugh the Seille river line at several points and captured at least four villages in initial ad- vances up to a mile or more.
 It. Gen. George s. Patton's forces, rested and re-supplied after a weeks-long Hull, outflanked Metz, toughest core of the German de- lenses in northeastern France, in the first few hours of the new of- fensive, front dispatches reported.
 A NaZi communique called the Third Army onslaught the Hong expected large scale offensive" Fol- lowing persistent Berlin assertions that the Allied had completed mass ing for full dress winter offensive on the western front, the com- munique said the Americans att tackled on 20-mile front between Pont A Mousson, on the Moselle midway between Nancy and Metz, and Chaeau Salins, key transport center IT miles east of Nancy.
 United Press Cormrespondent Col lie Small, with the Third Army in the Mosselle valley, reported that U. S. 18th corps units under Maj Gen. Manton Eddy charged the Ger man positions at a. m. after a heavy artillery bombardment.
 Mounting the offensive under heavy skies that impeded air sup port, assault forces advanced over rain-sodden fields to score their first successes in breaking across the Seille, a Moselle tributary ang- ling in a northwest-southeast direc- tion above Nancy.
 Captured German guns and am munition were turned against the Nazis in the preliminary shelling softening the enemy positions for the attack. Berlin said the drive was preceded by a strong" bom- bardment between Pont A Mousson and Chateau Salins.
 German shock troops, apparently trying to throw Patton's attack of balance, thrust deeply into enemy positions" south and southeast of Chateau Salins and in the forest ot Parroy, Berlin said. They were cred tied with blowing up 25 U. s. pill boxes and taking an unspecitied number of prisoners.
 Counter Attack
 On the southwestern approaches to Cologne, German counter-at- tack drove American First Army troops out of the hamlet of Kom- merscheidt, some 13 miles southeast of Aachen, but the doughboys held firmly to high ground 500 yards to the northwest and edged closer to Schmidt, mile to the southeast.
 Kommerscheidt was the third town to be won and lost in the per- tod of few days at the tip of the deepest Allied salient in Germany. The swaying street battle for Vos- senack, mile and half northwest of Kommerscheidt, ragged on into its third day on rising scale of fury.
 Both the Americans and the Ger mans threw endorsements of tanks and infantry into the struggle for Vossenack, field reports said.
 Patton sent elements of the 18th Corps under Major General Manton Eddy over the top between Metz and Nancy at 6 a. m. after an hour-long artillery barrage in which the Americans used captured German guns and ammunition.
 The doughboys slogged ahead over Ia virtual quagmire churned up by day-long rains yesterday. Leaden skies threatened to rob the troops of air support, but the attack in such inclement conditions apparent ly caught the enemy by surprise.
 First reports gave no clue to the scale or scope of the attack, which broke a weeks-long Hull on the 3rd Army front.
 Hull
 An almost complete lull settled over the 2lst Army group front in south- vest Holland with the rnopping up of the lest German pocket south of