Evening star., 1945-01-18

Gouay advanced nearly 3 miles
into Germany near Hongen,
center of German district jut-
ting into the Dutch pan
| handle.
BY the Associated Press.
PARIS, Jan. 18.-British troops
today invaded Germany at a new
point in a mile advance from
Holland toward the Roer River
sweeping through four villages
and pushing the Germans back
with shellfire and bayonets.
1t. Gen. George S. Patton's Sc
Army launched a new drive on thu
south side of the Ardennes salient
Elements of the 4th and 5th In.
fantry Divisions crossed the Sure
River beginning at am. today in
the Dlekirch area, Is miles north
OF Luxembourg City and 18 south
west OF the Siegfried Line stronghold
OF Bitburg. The crossing was forced
despite heavy mortar, machine gun
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The Sd Army also took Bourcy
and Hardigny.
In the Ardennes salient to the
south the United States 1st Army
attacked less than miles from St
With, miloS from the Reich. The
Sd Army mopped up Nazis trapped
before the Siegfried Line in Ger
many near Nennig, IL miles south
of Luxembourg City.
But above Strasbourg the REIN
forced and increasingly aggressive
Germans heightened their narrow
eross-Rhine bridgehead to 9 miles
and captured Stattmatten and Dem
golsheim, Is miles northeast of the
Alsatian capital. The United States
7th Army, however, won adjacent
Sessenheim, fought into the streets
OF Herrlisheim and beat down at
tacks at Hatten.
Four Towns Captured.
The white-caped Britons of 1t.
Gen. Sir Miles C. Dempsey's I'd
Army captured Susteren, Echt,
Overeind and Overhaven in the
Dutch panhandle. They swept on
across the frontier in a hook shaped
tip OF Germany northeast of Sit
tard in an area about miles from
the Roer, "a miles from Munchen
Gladbach population, 127,0OO) and
38 miles from Germany's 18th city
of Dusseldorf (540,000).
Echt is miles north of Sittard
Overboven, half mile north. Sus-
teren and Overeind are between
Sittard and Maeseyck. Dieteren was
captured yesterday. BY a trick of
boundaries, the British will have to
pass again through a silver of the
Netherlands before reaching the
Roer, guarded to the south by the
United States 9th Army.
Gen. Dempsey's new assault still.
was comparatively small, but was
being extended. His main force was
en- 2,000-yard front; it was gather
Ing momentum behind failing,
mlne-busting tanks. The Germans
were pouring in reinforcements and
committing some armor.
Fog Begins to Lift.
The two-day curtain of fog began
to lift slowly after dawn, promising
air support. The miserable combi-
nation of snow, ice and binding
ground haze had been perhaps the
greatest brake on the Allied attack
since the start of the week. AS the
fog lifted in the north, a slight rise
in temperature turned snow to slush
The LIST Army, perhaps by now
fighting again under command of
1t. Gen. Omar N. Bradley in the re-
merged 18th Army Group, captured
Recht and high ground east of Well
salm as it pressed on st. With, last
large Belgian road center still in
German hands.
The closest approach to the juno
ton of two railroads and seven high
ways funneling into the Siegfried
Line was in the Recht area. How
ever, nearly 3 miles of forest and
rugged hills barred the approaches
to st. With, where many Americans
were lost in Field Marshal Won
Rundstedt's December offensive. Gen.
Eisenhower's communique noted
lighter resistance"
Planes Support Tommies.
British Mosquito planes all night
long supported the Tommies
aground, freezing out enemy reserves
backing up the line east of the
Mas (Meuse) and west of the Roer.
Towns behind the battle line were
burned and Germans lost their shell
ter in the bitter cold.
Swinging north from Dieteren. the
British advanced up a. narrow road
east of the Julians Canal, seized
Echt and then wheeled south to link
up with other forces advancing from
Susteren.
The 1st and 30th (Old Hickory
Divisions of 1t. Gen. Courtney H.
Hodges LIST Army moved south on
St. With side by side through snow
drifts turning to muck and against
bitter opposition from dug in Ger
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