The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-01-16


 behind the enemy
 It. Gen. George s. Pattons Third Army forces made slight gains m the Bastogne sector. The Eleventh Armored Division, newly revealed to be in action, captured Vellereu% cix miles north of BaStOgne, and the 35th Division seized Oubourcy in the same area.
 Strong German tank and mortor- ized infantry units that had been fighting a savage rear guard action for Houffalize pulled out suddenly after nightfall yesterday in last minute attempt to rejoin their main forces digging in on the St. With ridge, IS miles to the north east
 Vanguards Of the U. S, Second Armored Division entered Houifallze between 10 and Il D. m. Last night without opposition, but at last re- ports they still were probing cau- tiousIy through the heavily-mlned streets to forestal a possible ann bush, and there was no official word that the town had been captured.
 The sudden breakthrough at Houffalize came as the entlrc northeastern wing of It. Gen. Courtney II. Hodges First Army wheeled down on St. With to a'- tack the wooden mountain ridge on which Marshal Karl von Run stedt's divisions were gathering in the hope of retaining some small part of their Ardennes salient.
 Hodges sent the first and 75th in- fantry divisions into the offensive at dawn yesterday in support oi the 30th infantry, which had driven to within six miles of St. With in four days of bloody fighting.
 The advance into Houffalize, which virtually sealed of sizeable German covering forces west ot that town, was made by second armored division tank spearhead that thrust straight down the Liege highway from the north.
 Not a shot was fired as the first tanks and armored troop carriers raced through the streets, but long lines of burned-out Nazi tanks at tested to the fury with which the enemy had fought to hold the tiny crossroads that once formed the pivot of his great Ardennes salient.
 Field dispatches indicated the German Panzer units fleeing from Houffalize were trying to break through the American ring north east of the town and rejoin their main forces for a lastditch stand on the l8-mile Houffaiize-St. With ridge.
 St. With, at the northeastern shoulder of the salient. already was menaced by three American divi- sions battling slowly toward the snow covered ridge along d l2- mile front south and southeast Of Malmedy. Spearheads of the at tacking force were less than si'; miles from St. With, but enemy re- sistance was reported stiffening with every yard of their advance
 Far to the southeast in Alsace, the Germans suddenly launched a major assault against the U. s. Seventh Army in Hatten, at the northern edge of the Hagenau forest and drove the Americans from all but a tiny foothold on the southwestern corner of the town.
 New Outburst
 The new Nazi outburst came after more than a week of hard but rela- lively small-scale fighting at a mo ment when the Americans seemed to have regained full control of the situation. Strong German re- inducements were reported moving down from the Siegtried line to jon the battle
 It. Gen. Alexander M. Patch's Seventh Army headquarters, in an- nouncing the new attack, revealed that the Germans had lost 4,00O killed, 10000 prisoners and 100 tanks destroyed since the start of their drive into Alsace on New Year eve.
 Today's report indicated the Ger mans were trying to compensate for their setback in the Ardennes by a local victory in Alsace, possibly aimed at splitting the Seventh Army front and capturing Strasbourg, 2S miles southwest of Hatten.
 Unconfirmed reports said German troops, possibly patrol landed on the west bank of the Rhine just east of Strasbourg, had entered the out skirts of the Asatian capital where they were rounded up and destroyed by French First Army units. Latest official information, however, said the main German brldgeheads eight miles north and about ten miles south of Strasbourg were being held in check.
 On the Ardennes front. all Nazi resistance was vanishing swiftly in the area west of Houffalize as con- verging units of the American First and Third Armies and the British Second Army rode down scattered German rear guards left behind by Marshal Von Rundstedt's retreating panzer divisions.
 The flercest fighting in the Houf- falize area came just northeast ol the town where the Second AEmored