Evening star., 1945-01-10
Putton's S Army
Scores Gains on
20-MiIe Front
MAP on Page A-3.)
BY the Associated Press.


PARIS. Jan. 10.-Lt. Gen
Courtney H. Hodges 1st Army
today won the biggest tank bat
tie of the Belgian bulge cam
'paign. capturing the secondary
road center of Samree after 81
hours of violent fighting in deer
snow which included an all-night
artillery barrage.
On the south of the salient, now
less than miles wide at its neck,
the American Sd Army of 1t. Gen
George s. Patton, jr., gained up to
a mile and a half in an advance
along a 20-mile front above Bas-
togne.
Gen. Patton's 101st Screaming
Eagle) Air-borne Division moved to
within Az miles of Houffalize, key
road center near the center of the
bulge.
The Germans were withdrawing
from the western tip Of the salient,
and their peril was increased appre-
ciably by the loss Of stoutly defend
ed Samree, from which a spider web
of secondary roads leads into the
salient.
British Take Five Towns.
The British took five towns in the
west and moved to within a half
mile Of La Roche. which seemed
doomed by the fall of Samree, 8
miles to the northeast.
La Roche itself was y-passed.
The Germans left only small
holding force in that town of about
1000.
All along a 16-mile front on the
north side of the bulge the LIST
Army drove ahead in snow for gains
ranging from half a mile to more
than mile. Vanguards were less
than miles from the last German
escape route from Houffalize to ST.
With.
The Germans in diversionary at
tacks in Alsace moved to within
10 miles south of Strasbourg. Bitter
fighting progressed miles north Of
that provincial capital.
Advance Across Highway.
The I'd Hell on Wheels Armored
Division of Maj. Gen. Ernest N.
Harmon and elements of the 84th
Infantry, commanded by Brig. Gen.
Alexander r. Boiling, teamed to
capture Samree and then advanced
south Of the stone ruins across the
st. With La Roche highway. All
that road now is under American
control to Vielsalm, 9 miles west
of st. With.
Vielsalm itself was entered and
st. With, major German base in the
bulge, was within artillery range.
Two columns of armor and infan-
try began the final drive from mile
north of Samree at 7;;30 am. They
reached the town an hour later and
captured it by 10 am. Brig. Gen.
John H. Collier of Dallas, Tex, led
the assaulting force.
Field Marshal Karl Won Rundstedt
had pulled the bulk of the defending
troops from the strategic town, leav-
ing Volksgrenadiers to their doom
The Americans 1st Army attacked
early yesterday, touching off a
scream battle in a blizzard with
dug-in and mobile tanks, some of
them captured Shermans.
Town Under Shellfire.
Samree is 9 miles northwest of
Houffalize, which was under shellfire
from north and south. It's capture
increased the possibility that a re-
spectacle bag of Germans might be
trapped in the western half of the
contracting bulge.
Samree is on a bare eminence
commanding much territory in all
directions.
Far to the south, the peril to the
Alsatian capital of Strasbourg in
creased with the Germans attack
ing near Kraft, only 10 miles below
the city after advancing miles
overnight.
Above the capital, the Germans
chung grimly to Gamsheim and
Druzenheim, and Is miles to the
northeast. In "a hours the 9Th
Army group Of 1t. Gen. Jacob L.
Devers knocked out "a tanks. Six
were destroyed near Oberheim, IA
miles south of Strasbourg where
the French 1st Army recaptured a
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