Evening star., 1944-12-10
Two Sd Army Divisions Joined
For Drive on Saar From South;
Saarbrucken Faces New Threat
German Losses
In Three Weeks
Put at 10000
MAP on Page Al
By the Associated Press.

oS tilc AssOGidLeQ FTeSS.
SUPREME ALLIED HEAD
QUARTERS, Paris. Dec. g.
Troops of 1t. Gen. George S. Pat
tons American Sd Army toda,
drove deeper into the German
Notifications around the Saa
basin, while other Allied arnie'
on the Western Front continued
their slow progress against des.
perate opposition.
The Sd Army's 26th Division
cracked the defenses of the ole
Maginot Line near the town OF
Achen, 7 miles southeast of Sarre-
guemines, and joined the 35th Divi-
sion on the east bank of the Saal
River for a drive from the south
on the Saarland, already under at
tack from the west. Achen is not to
be confused with Aachen, the Ger
man town on the northern end of
the long western front which is
west of Cologne.
The stubborn German resistance
along the entire front, the Allied
supreme command said, cost the
enemy 10000 men, the equivalent
of II divisions, in the first three
weeks of the current winter often
sive.
There was heavy fighting all along
the Sd Army line.
Reach Junction of Rivers.
The 5th Division, operating south
of Saarlautern, continued it's ad-
vance and reached the junction of
the Saar and Roselle Rivers.
Part of the 35th Division which
crossed at Sarreguemines pushed on
north into Neunkirsch, less than
half mile from the Saar Basins
frontier in the forefront of a poten-
tial enveloping drive against the
Saar's capital of Saarbrucken,
miles northwest.
The 9Th Armored Division wiped
out an enemy salient miles deep
and 2 miles wide located miles
southeast of Saarbrucken.
The Goth Division, pressing deeper
into the Siegfried Line in the Wes-
tern Saar Basin, seized the Dillingea
railroad station miles north of
Saarlautern, and beat back enemy
counterblows inside Dillingen.
The 26th Division was the first
to cross the Saar, breaking across
last month about II miles south of
Sarreguemines, and since then has
been beating up the east bank. 1t
ran into stiff resistance at Achen,
where it came up against the old
Maginto Line defences.
CThe German news agency
Transocean declared the Sd Army
was attacking with to 10 tank
divisions and mechanical in
fantry divisions-far more than
the Allies have announced.)
Attack Near Haguenau.
1t. Gen. Alexander M. Patch's 7th
Army kept the Allied winter offen-
sive rolling all the way east to the
Rhine with attacks northwest of
Haguenau within miles of Ger
many and was hacking at the ap-
proaches to Haguenau itself. The
city is the most important enemy
base left in Northern Alsace.
Snow blanketed the northern
front, where 1t. Gen. William H
Simpsons 9Th Army smashed the
last two German pockets on the
Roer River at Julich, and 1t. Gen
Courtney H. Hodges 1st Army edged
closer to the river about 18 miles
south of Julich near Bergstein.
The supreme command, surveying
the first three weeks of the often
slve ending November 30, claimed
destruction of the equivalent of II
German divisions, a rate of attri-
ton which in theory would destroy
the enemy's whole front line army
well before the end of winter.
With the British and Canadians
In Holland and the American 1st
and 9th Armies at the edge of the
Cologne Plain stabilized for the
moment by weather and flooded
river barriers, action centered on