Evening star., 1945-01-22
Reports Indicate
Ruin Will Exceed
FoIoise Gap oil
MAP on Page A-4.)
BY the Associated Press.

an entire army, in an attempted
Sneakaway from the Ardenne:
salient through the Siegfriec
hine to the Rhine, and tore then
to pieces in a ruinous day-lone
Iattack.
The planes attacked with bombs
rockets and machine guns.
The Nazis had waited too long to
run the gantlet down the snow
drifted escape roads and were caught
on two highways in concentrations
so thick the Allied pilots said after
ward I'VE couldn't miss
BY midafternoon the 10Th Tao
tical Air Force alone had surpassed
its own record of 833 German We
hicles destroyed in a single day and
it continued to hammer the enemy
columns.
There was every indication that
the ruin would be the greatest since
the Wehrnacht fled for the Seine
through the Falaise Gap. The de-
struction of equipment promised vir-
tually to immobilize at lease one OF
Field Marshal Won Rundstedt's two
mobile reserve armies.
Yanks Nearer st. With.
Allied air power intervened as the
American 3rd Army fought into the
streets of Wiltz, southern anchor of
German defenses in Luxembourg
and as the United States 1st Army
stormed into the open today from
the forest belt protecting St, With,
i21a miles away.
British on the north closed within
miles of the Roer River, near its
confluence with the Mas (Meuse)
at the German stronghold of Roer-
mond in Holland The French 1st
Army striking up from Mulhouse ap-
parently was slowed down in deep
snow after gaining up to miles
in two days. Germans attacks north
of Strasbourg apparently were being
held.
Two road jams, each contain
ing roughly 1,500 vehicles and each
containing some tanks, were spotted
by pilots over the Ardennes at $3.50
am. These were kept under at
tack for 80 minutes with every
thing the planes could toss through
the overcast, which hampered but
did not stop the slaughter.
One concentration was in the
Prum area, behind the Siegfried
Line and east of sharply menaced
st. With. The vehicles were headed
toward Bonn on the Rhine where
heavy troop train movements had
been observed earlier.
Third Group Also Attacked.
The other was taking a secondary
road 8 miles north of Diekirch, ap-
parently bypassing Vianden, road
| junction close to the Luxembourg
German border which already was
under American artillery fire.
Still a third group of vehicles, by
no means comparable in size with
the first two, was attacked south
west of Euskirchen. This might
have been an advance group of a
column trying to get through Prum
to the Rhine.
A competent military authority at
supreme headquarters said that the
destruction visited on Rundstedt's
armor fleeing the Ardennes salient
probably represented the equipment
of an entire army.
One force alone, of several air
units attacking, reported before noon
the destruction of 228 motor vehicles
and the damaging of IS others. The
same unit reported knocking ouF 16
tanks and armored vehicles.
Rocket Destroys Three Vehicles.
One pilot said single rocket hit
destroyed three vehicles, so closely
were they jammed on the ice
sheathed road.
Gen. Eisenhower's communique
listed IA captured towns, nearly all
in Belgium and Luxembourg, where
the debated German bulge was less
than $50 square miles.
| The whole portentious next phase
of the war in the west was slowly
taking shape.
Although it is too early yet to
see the full effect, there are these
possibilities:
/. The Germans, who rushed at
least some of the thin armored re-
serve south to the Alsace plain for a
"last try" blow at Strasbourg, may
have had to switch their strategy in
the middle of the move, and save
whatever strength possible for the
supreme test in the spring and
summer.
Attacks Lack Punch.
Attacks south of the WiSsembourg
Gap and across the Rhine just north
of Strasbourg seemed to lack punch
They were being held by the United
States 7th Army after initial gains
which, at least for the moment, were
being left unexploited.
2. The Germans were getting out
of the fattened Ardennes bulge In
virtually complete abandonment
of a 15-to-20-mile flank northwest
of Vianden, and heavy troop train
movements reported at Bonn reflect
ed last-minute changes in the
Wehrmacht's cross Rhine line in the
north.
This suggested that the Germans
were going once more over to q
mere delaying defensive-reinforc
ing the Roer River line guarding the
Ruhr and Rhineland and great
cities like Dusseldorf and Cologne
for stand nearer the Rhine.
8. For the first time, 1t began te
seem likely that the Allies would gel
in the next big offensive blow as the
Nazi command wavered between
| Three additional men from
the District area haDe been
reported killed in this ,Dnr. See |
ION the Honor Roll" Page Az. |
|