Evening star., 1945-01-27
Patton Erases
ArdennesBuIq
Alsace Quiet
Allied Armies Gain
lnitiotive Again
All Along Front
By the Associated Press.


glum gained up to miles today
and reached the Our River bar
rier to Germany.
The rollup to the Our River from
tier. wiping out last vestiges of the
Ardennes bulge, came as the Amer
ican 9th and British I'd Armies in
the north consolidated their hold
along the west bank of the Roer
River inside Germany within 25
miles of Dusseldorf.
Allied troops held the initiative
all along the winding western front
and the Germans offensive in Al
SAGE had dwindled out.
American Goth Division patrols
reached the Our River at APPOINT
AZ miles northeast of Clervaux in
Northern Luxembourg, front dis
patch said. They met no resistance.
Troops of the 17th Airborne Divi-
sion punched forward miles at a
point z miles below st. With.
591 Germans Captured.
They and three other divisions
were astride or across the skyline
drive" highway running north to ST..
With on 1,500-foot ridge overlook
ing the Our and the Germans Sieg-
fried Line guarding the Reich. The
26th Division drove ahead 21s miles
above Wiltz, and the 80th and 5th
Divisions advanced from half to one
mile. The Sd Army bagged sol pris-
oners yesterday.
The American 9th and British I'd
Armies held the Roer River bank
from Roermond to Monschau, 10
miles southeast of Aachen, and had
widened the only breach in the Sieg-
fried Line to 35 miles.
Russia's great offensives were be-
ing felt increasingly on the snow
bound western front, as witnessed by
tins .Naai thdfawais to- vSf,ewFRoer
River and the halt to German at
tacks in Alsace.
For the second straight day pilots
reported a steady flow of heavy rail
traffic east and northeast from the
whole Ruhr region. This possibly
was linked with the mounting mem
ace to Germany in the East. The
Ruhr train movements might reflect
last-minute shift of boarded mil
itary materiel reserves eastward.
Nazi Transport Attacked.
Allied planes battered again yes
terday at Nazi rail and road trans
port and Raj Tactical Air Force
planes alone in $50 sorties destroyed
l3 locomotives and damaged Is,
wrecked or damaged $50 railway
cars and 26 road vehicles.
Snowdrifts hampered all six Allied
armies in the west and fog overhung
the Alsace plain where the 10Th Di-
vision of the American 7th Army
had rubbed out the last German
bridgehead over the Moder River
west of Haguenau.
Ninth Army Doughboys, breaking
a lull of six weeks, discovered the
Germans had pulled out west of the
Roer. The Americans reached the
river with such ease that scheduled
artillery barrage was Cancelled.
To the north the British I'd Army
swept up the Wurm River, a tribu-
tary of the Roer, capturing at least
six German villages. Scottish patrols
mopped up the remainder of the
sector all the way to Roermond.
Nazi Resistance Light.
The 1st Army captured five more
towns in Belgium and edged east
ward to within 21a miles of Germany
The resistance was so light it was
asserted officially that German
shifting of troops to the eastern
front had definitely relaxed pres
sure in the west.
In Northern Alsace the 7th Army
had driven the Germans back to
the starting line of their latest
attack, while the French 1st Army
in Southern Alsace was threatening
Colmar, last major enemy held
French city west of the Rhine.
A front dispatch said that with
the last German driven back across
the Moder River. 16 miles north OF
Strasbourg, the threat to that Rhine
city was lifted. The United States
18th Division played a major role
in that operation.
Relative quiet had descended last
night along a 20-mile front from
Haguenau, eastern American an
chor, westward to the northern
Vosges mountains, the dispatch re-
ported. The Yanks recaptureo
Schillersdorf, IL miles northwest o1
Haguenau, then pressed on a mile
and half north, recapturing Muhl-
hausen and Bischholz.
American troops fighting in the
French LIST Army and their French
comrades battled into Houssen, 8
miles north of Colmar for the closest
approach to the enemy stronghold.