Evening star., 1944-11-20

BY the Associated Press.
LONDON, Nov. 2O.-French
troops broke through the his
toric Burgundy Gap at Belfort
and reached the Rhine, it was
announced today, as five other
Allied armies hit sagging Ger
man defenses along all the other
historic routes of invasion into
Germany. This week held the
greatest promise of any since the
Normandy break-through.
French troops and armor un-
hinged the entire German flank at
the Swiss border and surged into
the outskirts of the bypassed fort
ress city of Belfort in break
through announced by Gen. Jean de
Lattre de Tassigny of the French
1st Army The Rhine was reached
by nightfall yesterday, he said.
American and French forces seized
the entrances to four of the six main
passes through the Vosges to the
Rhine They are battling 81 miles
from Strasbourg, q miles from Col
mar and 10 miles from MulhouSe, all
important cities on the French side
of the Rhine.
Yanks at Saar on Wide Front.
Third Army forces, crushing Metz
in a grip that seized third of that
blocked-off old Roman fortress city,
drew up to the Saar border on 10
mile front and punched out a S.
mile-square block Of territory in
Germany northwest of the Saar and
east of the Luxembourg border.
This thrust, along the western
fringe of the Saar Valley and just
east of the Moselle, assumed the
proportions of drive up the famous
Moselle Gate toward Trier and Cob
lentz on the Rhine, 80 miles to the
northeast.
On the Cologne Plain three Allied
armies fighting on Gen. Eisenhow-
er's most concentrated front had
bulged approximately miles north
east of Aachen since the start of
their offensive through the Ger
mans most formidable and deter
mined defense.
Losing village after village, the
German stand at last was showing
signs of a crackup in spots as the
British I'd and United States 9th
and lst Armies threw the armored,
artillery, infantry and aerial
punches which might break through
to Cologne on the Rhine, 26 miles
away, Dusseldorf and the Ruhr VAL
ley to the northeast.
Signs of Withdrawal.
Here the American 9Th Army of
1t. Gen William Simpson forged
ahead for gains of mile or more,
and field dispatches said aerial re-
connaissance disclosed signs of a
German withdrawal toward Cologne
and the Ruhr.
There was decided movement of
motor transport eastward" from the
Duren and Julich areas, and many
antiaircraft positions had been
abandoned, it was said.
In Holland the British stabbing to
the Mas at KeSsel, 61s miles below
Venlo, were feeling out Nazi de-
fepses 215 miles from the German
border and 20 miles from Dussel-
dorf.
In the southern sectors of the
front the French, fighting back
across the Alsace territory they sur
rendered in the 1910 armistice, and
the Sd Army in its Whirlwind Of
fensive had thrown the Germans
into tailspin
Front-line dispatches indicated a
definite German retreat was on the
Rhine and the Saar, the boundaries
of the Reich.
The French 1st Army reached the
Rhine after racing through the Bel
fort Gap in an outf1anking ma
neuver which seized all or most of
the high ground on its south side.
There was no immediate report
as to where the French were now
standing watch on the Rhine. but
apparently it was near Mulhouse.
A previous supreme headquarters
announcement said they had
reached Seppois, 16 miles southeast
of Belfort and 181a miles from the
Rhine. Front line reports told of
thrust miles farther north and
the capture of Dannemarie. IL miles
(see WESTERN FRONT, Pg. AID
200 DI,no Ar D,;d