Evening star., 1944-09-20

at Nllmegen, IN Holland, ana
are hitting north toward Arm
hem, on the upper branch of
the Rhine, the official Neither
lands radio station said to-
night.
UNITED STATES Sd ARMY
HEADQUARTERS, France P).
Allied troops. under 1t. Gen.
George S. Patton, jr., advanced
8 miles in the Baccarat area
today. Americans captured
Chatel. on the east side of
the Moselle River between
Charmes and Epinal, and
seized Luneville road juno
ton south of Nancy.
By the Associated Press.
LONDON, Sept. 20.-Fashion-
Ing a vast trap for the Germans
massive forces of the British I'd
Army and the Allied 1st Air
Borne Army today straddled the
lower Rhine in Holland S miles
from Germany, and were in posi-
ton for a new invasion of the
Reich around the upper end OF
the Siegfried Line.
Supreme headquarters announced
that Allied troops and supplies con-
tinued to pour in today for the
fourth consecutive day.
AS the great operations were
pressed on the Netherlands front,
Canadian troops battled into the
Channel port of Boulogne, and an
unconfirmed Algiers broadcast said
the German garrison already had
surrendered. On the Brittany
Peninsula, the big supply port of
Brest was firmly in American hands.
British I'd Army armor threw a
50-mile long cutoff wall across
Eastern Holland in 48 hours. 1t
merged solidly with parachute
glider soldiers dropped near Nil
megen on the Waal Ryn (Rhine) &.
The British apparently were battling
on to link with still other sky troops
10 miles farther north on the upper
branch of the river near Arnhem.
Line Being Outfanked.
The Siegfried Line was being out
flanked. The path was opening for
a wheeling offensive across the fiat
lands of Northern Germany. Nazis
in Southwestern Holland were men,
aced with entrapment.
Americans struck fierce German
resistance in the invasion of Ger
many, and in their offensives from
the Nancy-Metz line and toward
the Belfort Gap farther south. But
two doughboy columns had thrust
20 miles or more beyond Nancy to-
ward Strasbourg.
The whole Netherlands front was
developing into a potential vast new
trap for the enemy. The lower
Rhine defenses had been turned by
the assault from the sky and the
ground power drive of the British
Allied planes battered at German
rush of reinforcements into the
Netherlands and other points along
the front.
The British drive enveloped Find
hoven and stabbed on As miles far
ther north. joining men OF the 1st
Allied Air-Borne Army at or near
Nijmegen. They perhaps are already
linked up with the pocket of Allied
soldiers at Arnhem.
Visit by Himmler Reported.
German resistance tightened con-
siderably. Heinrich Himmler was
reported to have visited German
units in Holland, urging "stiffest re-
sistance." But the two Allied armies
were steadily enlarging their stand,
blocking most of the roads to Rot
terdam and Amsterdam. The Paris
radio said even the Utrecht line of
retreat had been cut by Allied land
jngs from planes
Berlin broadcaSts acknowledged a
retreat across the Western Schelde.
Polish troops had burst more than
3 miles across the Hulst Canal to
within miles of the Schelde
estuary west of Antwerp.
Americans in the southeastern
corner of Holland crossed into Ger
many east of Sittard and Amsten-
rade. 20 miles above Aachen, and
east of Simpelveld. 7 miles above
that ruined city.
Perhaps the greatest steeling of
Nazi resistance was along the West
Wall defenses from we'll north of
Aachen to Trier. The American 1st
Army was on or across the Reich S
frontier almost everywhere along
an 80-mile front.
Battle in Aachen's Streets.
Yanks and Germans fought in
the streets of Aachen. Some enemy
troops held out in the factory dis
trict OF by-passed Stolberg, miles
farther inside Germany. Americans
were shelling Duren, Is miles be-
yond Aachen and 20 miles from Co.
logne. Prum, miles inside Ger
(see WESTERN FRONT, Page A-5.)