The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-09-20

from the south bank Of the Waal river.
 First reports indicated the vital bridge across the Waal on the road to Arnhem was still standing when the Allies broke into the town. An unconhrmed radio Paris broadcast said British armored forces drove five miles beyond Nijmegen and ef- fected a juncture with airborne troops moving down from Arnhem.
 Supplies For AirbOrne
 United Press War Correspondent Walter Cronklite, with the sky troops in Holland, said fresh supS plies and endorsements were being landed and the airborne army, now equipped with light tanks and big field guns, could beat of anything the Germans might try to throw against them.
 He reported, that the Germans were counter attacking desperately but ineffectively with shock troops and heavy artillery, and the flght- ing was within sound of the Ger. man border.
 At Nijmegen, the Allies were only three miles above the German frontier and about 12 miles north northwest of Kleve, where the Nazi west wall reputedly ends. At Arm hem they were less than 10 miles from the Reich and, if the British armor can be brought Up in force, in position for a smash across ex- cellent tank country all the way to Berlin, some 260 miles to the east.
 The Germans appeared to have rallied somewhat from the initial shock of the Allied airborne inva- sion and were fighting fanatically even when by-passed by the British arnor.
 They hit back with particular fer ocity around Best on the Wilhel- nina Canal six miles northwest of Eindhoven and won back the town, but were stopped before they could cut dangerously into the Allied flank. Other Nazi units counter -at- tackled repeatedly against the base of the Allied Spearhead along the Belgian Dutch border, but without success. Troops, tanks and guns still were pouring across the frontier to join in the big push for the Reich.
 Complete EncircIement
 Some 30 miles southeast of Nij- megen, the American First Army completed the encirclement of Aachen and sent armored spear heads eastward toward Cologne in a bitterly opposed drive that already had forced the evacuation of Ger man civilians from the Rhineland.
 American 55-millimeter long toms shelled Duren, 16 miles east of Aachen and 19 miles from Cologne.
 Southeast of Cologne, American and German troops locked in sav- age street battles for Stolberg and the nearby village of Busbach. Still farther south, 1st Army troops and tanks widened their salients inside Germany in the Monschau, Prum, Echternach and Tier areas, knock ing out pillboxes on each side of their spearheads but making only yard-by-yard progress forward.
 Despite the stubhornesS of the German resistance on the 1st Army Front, United Press Correspondent Henry T. Gorrell reported that pri- soners still were coming in at the rate of 2,000 a day and thta the 1st army bag now totaled l90,00o men.
 On It. Gen. George s. Patton's s U. S. 3rd Army front to the south, United Press Correspondent Robert Richadrs said French forces of the interior had ojined the Americans in a two-pronged drive for the Saar valley that made good progress in the face of heavy opposition.
 One column advanced g miles northeast of Epinal to the Baccarat area, while a second moved 20 miles northeast of Nancy, to the vicinity of Marshal and DieuZe.
 German Panzer Grenadiers, many of them veterans of the Italian aI1c North African campaigns, opposed the 3rd Army drive and Richards reported they were using tanks minefields and roadblocks in stub- born fighting retreat through tht forests east of the Moselle.
 At least IA enemy tanks were de- stroyed in the Dieuze sector yester' day, Richards said.
 Fighting in the Metz area to the north still was "very stiff" with the Americans gaining ground slowly and painfully, he added.