The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-02-23

crossings immediately north and south of Dueren were attempting to link up behind the east bank sec- tion of the town.
 They described the blow as the long awaited Anglo = American" offensive that had been expected from the west in coordination with the Red army drive from the east "a strong hint that the British Second Army also was on thS move.
 There was on immediate con- firmation of the eremy report at General Dwight D. EisenhoWerS headquarters.
 But there were strong indications that the long awaited knockout drive from the west was under way or about to begin.
 5000 Bombers In Action
 The first laundering salvoes of the offensive may have been fired yes terday in the tremendous aerial bombardment that paralyzed the railway system across central and western Germany.
 Almost 5000 Allied bombers and fighters from Italy and the western fields bombed and gunned the Nazi communications system from dawn to dark yesterday, littering German railway and road lines with the wreckage of 4,OOO locomotives, rail cars and motor vehicles.
 Frantic German air raid warnings indicated the Allied air forces were winging back over the Reich again this morning in brilliantly-clear weather to pile new destruction on the smoking enemy homeland.
 First word of the reported big push came in a broadcast front dis patch from a German Transocean correspondent.
 The Ninth Army front, he said, burst into flame at 2:45 a. m. when American guns opened terrific cannonading against the Roer river crossings in the Linnich-Dueren sector east of Aachen.
 For three hours the merican guns raked and tore at he German front lines. Then, at 5:45 a. m, Tank doughboys swarmed up out of their foxholes and moved out to the attack behind a screen of tanks.
 Four crossings of the Roer were made in the opening hours of the assault, Transocean said. Two col- umns forced the river line imme- diately north and south of Lin- nich, 27 miles east of Cologne. while two others broke into the Cologne Plain opposite Niederau and Kreu- zau, three and four miles south of Dueren.
 Transocean referred to the four bridgeheads as the storm centers" Of the battle, and indicated that other crossings might have been made between Linnich and Dueren, the latter only 20 miles east of Col ogne.
 German Grenadiers are crouch ing in their trenches and pill boxes v the Transocean reporter said. When the Americans started their attack they were mt with sheets of flame from German mach inc guns and quick firing weapons from half-destroyed trenches and dugouts.
 Thus the fifth and most tremend- ous battle has f1ared up in the Aachen sector"
 With the American Ninth Army already on the move, by German ac- counts, there was every indication that the British Second and U. s. First Armies on either flank would join in the offensive to reach and perhaps hurdle the Rhine.
 200 Targets Hit
 Yesterdays 'buckshot" aerial as- sault ripped up at least 200 impor- tant German communications tar gets and left the vast network of NaI rail and road lines hopelessly tangled. But most of the damage probably could be repaired and com munications restored to fair work ing order within a matter of days, suggesting that the Allied ground armies would have to strike quickly to take advantage of the aerial blitz.
 Twin Allied drives on the northern and southern Hanks of the Cologne plain already were weakening the German position on that vital cen- tral sector of the western front.
 In the north the Canadian First Army was slowly beating back ele- ments of ten German divisions thrown across the Rhine-Maas cor ridor leading to the Ruhr valley.
 Gen. H. D. G. Crerars Canadian, Scottish and English troops were q mile northwest of the enemy east ern anchor at Calcar and little more than mile southwest of the town, threatening breakthrough that would put them on the Rhine cross ingS barely 20 miles from the Ruhr.
 At the center of the line, Crerar's forces were hammering slowly south and southwest from captured Goch, closing in on Uedem, Weeze and Blijenbeek, two to three miles be- yond.
 German resistance was very stiH all along the Canadian attack front, however, and progress still was be- ing measured in yards.
 But to the south. It. Gen. George