Evening star., 1945-02-21
|Yanks Smash
Through Hole
In Nazi Line
Putton's Tanks Gain
5H Miles in Drive
Toward Trier
MAP on Page A-4.)
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
PARIS. Feb. z1.-Lt. Gen,
George S. Patton. jr., today
hurled an armored division
through hole gouged in the
central German front in the
Moselle-Saar triangle and the
tanks smashed 51a miles forward
toward Trier through disorgan-
lied resistance.
Goch, strongly fortified road CEN
ter between the Rhine and Meuse
Rivers in the north, finally was
captured by Scots of the Canadian
lst Army which gathered momentum
in its offensive toward the Ruhr
Valley, 16 miles away
South of Gen. Patton's Sd Army,
the American 7th Army advanced
to within sight of Saarbruecken, less
than 3 miles away. 1t. Gen. Alex
ander M. Patch's shock troops in
vading the Saar again captured half
a dozen border towns and broke into
Forbach, large French rail center
which is almost a suburb of dew
astated Saarbruecken. The Ameri-
cans seized heights overlooking his
toric Spicheren and the Siegfried
Line Notifications.
Capitalizes on Breach.
Gen. Patton, swiftly capitalizing
on the breach in German defenses
carved laboriously by Maj. Gen.
Harry J. Malony's Oath Division, sent
his tanks within miles of Trier
and 2 miles of Saarburg, both key
stones of the German defense sys-
tenn in the Moselle Valley leading
to Coblenz and Mainz on the Rhine.
Dispirited Germans surrendered by
the hundreds.
All along a 55-mile assault front,
the Sd Army was slamming the
Germans back on their heels. The
onslaught was in the Eifel Noun
tains from the Pruem area to be-
low the Moselle. Vanguards were
within a mile of the northern fringe
of the rich Saar coal and steel
region.
The attack overran II towns over
night and early today and reached
to within 31a miles of the confluence
Of the Saar and Moselle, just south
west of Trier, Oldest city in Ger
many.
Goch Finally Cleared.
In the north, the last enemy suicide
squads were cleared from Goch, once
a town of 1880 and still the center
of eight military highways. The
Scots thrust on 600 yards south
westward. Goch is miles south of
captured Kleve, terminal of the orig
inal Siegfried Line, and II miles
southeast of the Dutch city of Nj
jmegne, where the Canadian Of
fensive started.
Beyond the once-bristling town
lies small open plain in which no
fixed German Notifications have
been noted.
British Empire troops fighting
with Gen. Henry Crerar's command
gathered momentum and drove
deeper into the center of German
defenses in synchronized thrusts
through Buchholt and Halverboom
villages near besieged Calcar.
Gen. Patton's drive along the Mo-
selle was threatening the compact
coal and steel treasures of the
Saar district, which also was en-
dangered by the increasingly ag-
gressive American 7th Army IS miles
to the south.
Gen. Pattons S army was 8 miles
inside Germany along the Moselle.
1t was beyond or within the Sieg-
fried Line along the entire assault
front.
Saarbruecken, toward which the
7th Army is driving, was blasted by
eight successive days of artillery fire
at the start of December. It is city
of $4,000, the capital of the Saar
and the center of five railroads, and
five main highways tanning out
toward the Rhine.
Villages overrun by Gen. Patton's
troops were zinsing, Altsing, Hessel-