Evening star., 1944-09-24
War Review
Stiff Nazi Defense
DELAYS Victory
By Howard p. Bailey.

xASAlVAAAS WAtl1 q lCACWCO ACIOClG
growing out of their desperate sit
uation, the Nazi armies on the west
ern front have been able to hold tn
greater part of the Allied force a
bay for the past week although a
heavy cost, the effects of which nj
doubt will be evident in the flna
days of the war in Europe.
Gen. Eisenhower, who has man
aged his various armies with all th'
skill of a quarterback, has pushes
the enemy back to within sight O
the goal line and, like all powerful
teams, the Nazis are defending thos'
last yards with everything they hav'
available.
After many days of heavy pound.
ing at the center Of the line and of
tackle. if the football metaphor may
be continued, Eisenhower suddenly
tossed forward pass over left enc
when important units of 1t. Gen
Brereton's air-borne army landed
across the Rhine River in Holland
and these units were quickly rein.
forced and resupplied with the ex-
ception of one British unit which
has occupied part of the Dutch viii
lage of Arnhem, toward which 1t
Gen. Dempsey's I'd British Army is
battling against terrific resistance
In an effort to make contact and
save what may remain of the para
troopers and air-borne infantry.
Pathway to Nazi Industry.
The importance of this operation
lies in the fact that success would
open the fiat plains to Allied advance
straight at the heart of the Ger
man industrial area with such
manufacturing cities as Essen, Dus-
seldorf, Duisburg and Hamm in
triguingly near.
Aware of the threat, the Nazis
smashed strongly at each of the
pockets of air-borne troops, but ad-
vancing British ground forces o1
the I'd Army have made contact
with all but the group now in dan.
ger of annihilation in Arnhem. The
Nazis' radio claims that the storm
of artillery shells and mortar fire
which has been rained down on the
air-borne troopers has, in fact, al
ready wiped them out, but evidences
of continued resistance are spurrine
Dempsey's men on in their effort
to make contact, an effort which has
brought German positions in Arm
hem under artillery fire
Monday Dempseys men, advanc-
Ing from its bridgehead over the
Schelde-M -Meuse Canal, pushed for
ward 7 miles into Holland to a
point near Eindhoven, where part
of the air-borne forces were estab-
lished. The American 1st Army, be-
yond the western line of the Sieg-
fried defenses, held off hoarsely
screaming German troops who
charged forward in wave after wave
in a futile attempt to drive the
Americans back. Patton's Sd Army
moved eastward from Nancy and
northward behind Metz, in the
meantime beating off repeated coun-
terattacks by the Nazis. Patch's 7th
Army, pushing steadily forward,
was on the last 15-mle stretch
leading to Belfort in the gap through
which a pathway lies to the Upper
Rhine.
Wednesday 1t was announced that
In more remote operations, Cana
dians had fought their way into
Boulogne and that Brest had been
completely occupied. On the western
front, Dempsey had managed to
erect a 50-mile wall extending out
into Holland and a definite threat
to roll up the German right flank
just as Patton rolled up the left in
Normandy was developing. Over on
the Allied right flank, two columns
of Americans had pushed to within
20 miles of Strasbourg. The Ameri-
can 1st Army was across the Ger
man frontier in the center of the
line over an 80-mile front.
Perhaps the most important de-
velopment of the week was the cap
ture intact of the Nijmegen Bridge
in Holland, a mile-and-a-hal long
span which offers easy passage over
the Rhine. So rapid was the ad-
vance, which was aided by the
threat of advancing paratroopers on
the German side of the river, the
enemy had no time to destroy the
span.
Tossing in everything, tanks,
heavy artillery and planes, the Ger
mans launched one counterattack
after another along the entire front,
but as the week ended, 100000 Nazis
in Holland faced entrapment, the
turning of the western end of the
Siegfried Line was imminent, Allied
advance forces we're about 20 miles
from Cologne and great litter of
smashed Nazi tanks in the region
beyond Nancy told a graphic story
of the Allied power in that region.
All week long the Allied air force
pounded away at German defenses,
industry and transportation. Tues
day the RAF dropped 100000 fire
bombs on the great German port of
Bremerhaven and Berlin was
touched up for the 179th time in
the war. The Bremerhaven attack
left great roaring fires in the harbor
area, where the two huge liners, the
Europa and the Bremen, have been
lying.
On the Italian front important
progress was made during the week.
The series of successes on the east
ern end Of the line, climaxed by the
capture of the Adriatic port of
Rimini by mixed Canadian and
Greek troops on Friday, has opened
the path to the Pc Valley, up which
1t. Gen. Alexander can throw his
great mechanical superiority in the
hope that the battle for Italy may
be brought quickly to an end. The
Nazis are fighting now with what is
left Of II badly battered divisions
and the tempo of their movement
backward is increasing. The week
saw the first Brazilian troops in &C
ton, when part of the expeditionary
force serving with the American 5th
Army smashed forward a mile into
the Gothic Line to capture village.
The American 5th made consid-
cradle progress along the entire left
half of the line, taking numerous
Stratppic HIGH pointS apd reoictori,,o