Evening star., 1944-09-19
MAP on Page A-3.)
By the Associated Press.

LONDON, Sept. 19.-Rein-
forced by artillery dropped from
the skies and backstopped by a
hookup with ground forces, AL
lied airborne troops firmly an
chored their hold on vital water
lanes in Holland today in a bat
tie of rising fury before northern
bastions of the German West
Wall.
The British End Army, joining up
with the 1st Allied Airborne Army's
sky invasion, captured Eindhoven
seventh largest Dutch city and i'm
portant communications center
after charging forward 16 miles in
"a hours. Geldrop, miles to the
east, also fell to the British.
The great Allied operation in Hol-
land threatened to roll up the Ger
man flank just as the Brittany
breakthrough did in France.
The Germans acknowledged aban-
doning the Brittany port of Brest,
but declared the town and great
harbor "are only smoking ruins. "
The suicide garrison was said to
have retreated to the nearby LIE
Groom Peninsula.
Reinforced by Artillery.
A front dispatch said American
parachute troops, blazing a path in
Holland for ground troops and
armor, had been reinforced by
glider borne artillery.
The Germans brought up heavy
artillery in an attempt to destroy
strategic canal seized by the Ameri-
cans. The Americans were elimi-
mating the eneny's artillery with
comparatively small but deadly
portable weapons. Fighting within
pistol range of the German gunners,
the Americans attacked heavy field
pieces with bazooka rocket shells.
Allied headquarters announced
that the airborne army had consoli-
dated and strengthened positions in
Holland.
The sky troops were knocking
Germans from one Dutch village
after another and seizing strategic
NJ lQ6Co dIlu CIOSSTOdQS.
AS more troops landed from planes
and glideres for the third success
slve day, Berlin limited some had
descended north of the Rhine delta.
IN the area where Rotterdam, Am
Sterdam and The Hague lie
Such landings would threaten
quick turning of the Rhine as
defensive position.
Press Toward Cologne.
While the fianking sweep de-
veloped in Holland, the main weight
of the Allied land assault was bat
tering through the Rhineland on
the last 20 or Is miles to Cologne.
Other American columns were hit
ting through the Lorraine Gap in
new gains beyond Nancy, and
farther below were closing steadily
on Belfort, gateway to Southwestern
Germany.
The Germans hurled in reserves
from the Russian front, risked some
of their remaining planes and fired
their biggest artillery barrages since
Normandy. But despite their stif-
tened stand, Americans captured
four more border towns and reached
at least three others.
The air vault into Holland-in the
greatest air-borne operation of wars
hlstory-carried the gravest i'm
mediate menace to the stubborn Nazi
defense of the homeland.
The German reported landings
north of the Rhine delta, plus land
lngs they said were made earlier at
NiJmegen and Arnhem on and above
the Rhine near the Reichs frontier.
would seal off every main east-west
road from Germany to Rotterdam.
The Hague and Amsterdam through
the dike-guarded lowlands south of
Hollands inland sea.
BY this account, the 1st Allied air.
borne army had leaped the last and
greatest Dutch water barrier. and
put the fighting in the rich heart of
Holland.
Allied armor would need only to
smash IS to 40 miles above Find
hoven to complete the link-up, and
turn the Germans Rhine defenses.
West of Antwerp, in Belgium,
Allied troops crossed northward into
Holland.
In Germany a bitter cleanout fight
ragged toward a climax in the big
city of Aachen.
Other United States 1st Army
(See WESTERN FRONT. Pp A-30