The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-01-02
Foe Active From
 Bitche To Rhine
(Continued from Page lO

west of the line through Bastogne
 A field dispatch timed at eigh o'clock this morning (three a. m EWTD said all contact had been los with the Nazi armored division that had been holding the Westerl tip of the salient and that Amer. jeans were advancing eastward against light rear guard resistance.
 United Press War Correspondent Boyd Lewis reported the German withdrawal which apparently ended for the time being Field Marsha Karl Won Rundsted's threat to tht Mouse river line.
 Apparently alarmed by the grow. | ing threat of Lieutenant Genera George S. Patton's Third Army as- sault on their southern flank, tho Nazis were believed gathering theil crack panzer units in the center oi the Ardennes in preparation for 2 new attempt to break through tho American ring-perhaps north to- ward Liege and Antwerp or south against Patton'S troops.
 ROchefOrt Captured
 Lewis censored dispatch did not specify the location of the American forces advancing against the nose of the German Salient. The Tank counter drive at last reports, now more than 36 hours old, had punch ed back some l2 miles from positions only four miles east of the Mouse tC recapture Rochfort, "A miles north west of Bastogae.
 Coicident with the reported Ger man withdrawal in the ArdenneS, supreme headquarters announced a sudden flare-up of enemy activity on both sides of the focal battle ground.
 Nazi patrols stabbed aggressive ly at the American and British lines to the north, while consider ably stronger enemy forces coun- terattacked on the U. s. Seventh Army front along the Rhine plain in a pattern very similar to the opening stage of the ArdenneS of- fenSive.
 United Press War Correspondent Clinton B. Conger reported that the Germans threw in several attacks of battalion strength, some 800 to 300 men each, against the seventh Army lines around Bitche Sunday night and were continuing their onslaught with increasing force early yesterday.
 There was no further indication of the scope or intent of the new thrust, which succeeded in push ing back the Seventh Army lines slightly on front of about l2 miles.
 Headquarters spokesmen declined to speculate whether the new as- sault was q diversion to weaken Patton's drive in the Ardennes or the beginning of full-scale of- fenslVe to split the Third and SeV- enth Army fronts.
 Meanwhile, the SHAEF' communi- que and field dispatches from Pat tons attack front-all delayed 24 to 36 hours by ensorship-said the Third Army was grinding steadily into the southern flank of the Ar denneS salient on broadening front north, east and west of Bas- tOgne.
 Veterans of the American Ninth armored division gave the Nazis resounding beating in the wooded hills southeast of Bastogne New Years Eve, halting a powerful arm ored force that tried repeatedly to cut the supply corridor below that town and isolate Pattons advanced spearheads 10 the north.
 67 Tanks Lost
 Attacking all day Sunday and through the night. the Germans had gained about 200 yards in the Lutre- nols sector three miles southeast of Bastogne at cost of 67 tanks.
 Ihirty-two of the Nazi Panzers were wrecked in tremendous bat tie with the Ninth Divisions tanks, tank destroyers and baZooka gum ners, and another 35 were blasted by American dive bombers and rocket-firing fighters.
 S''NsNeA4NpbolJi lllN AINtIlldtlA IluIl- ed some 300 infantrymen into flankIng attack on American posi- tlons above Lutrebois, only to be thrown back on that sector by doughboys Of the 2Gth Division, mostly New Englanders. The 26th went over to the attack early today and slugged back several hundred yards through the enemy lines, Lewis reported.
 Still closer to Bastogne, an Amer ican armored column drove three miles eastward to take the cross roads hamlet or Wardin, strength. ening the eastern wall of Bastogne corridor
 Other German units in apparently smaller force were reported strik- ing futilely against the western side of the corridor from the Slbret area, four miles southwest of Bas- togne. By Sunday morning these units had succeeded in gaining as much as a mile, but their threat was negated by American advances to the north and west.
 On tht flank, Patton's armored and infantry. divisions all but elim- mated the danger to Bastogne by showing their line almost abreast of .he own on a i6-mile front extend ng westward to the St. Hubert area. The American offensive spear heads were crowdinZ steadily fore ward. by-passing relatively strong 5erma nresistance areas around