Evening star., 1945-01-14
Reds Break Through 25 Miles
In Poland Offensive, Stain Says;
Yanks Race to Cut off Germans
lst Army Strikes
As Won Rundstedt
Pulls Troops Bock
BY the Associated Press.

MdIolldI nail Won hunOSLeQC S
German armies continued to fall
back through their Ardennes
salient last night as the United
States 1st Army-in a grand at
tempt to cut off from the Reich
these retreating enemy forces :
scored gains of up to 2 miles in
a general assault against the
Germans northern flank.
The lst Army struck before dawn
from south of Malmedy and Stave-
lot toward st. With, Belgian town
four miles from the German bor-
der. where Won Rundstedt was ex-
pected to make his next stand
against the mounting Allied drive.
To the southwest. tanks reached
Mont-le-Ban, a village only a mile
from the last good escape road from
Houffalize, German base which once
was the center of the shrunken Bel
gian salient.
German resistance was light at
first but stiffened during the day.
The enemy used tanks against the
advancing Yanks and supported his
infantry with heavy artillery fire
especially in the area north and
northwest of ST. With, which the
Germans apparently mean to hold
as long as possible. They need it to
protect the junction there through
which a large part of their re-
treating forces must pass.
Weather Aids Allied Flyers.
As fair weather enabled Allied
air forces to strike hard at the
withdrawing Germans, returning
pilots reported heavy enemy move
ments eastward. Among the. COL
umns attacked was one proceeding
to the northeast toward Prum, in
dicating that some forces have been
pulled out of the salient altogether
and not only through the Siegfried
Line but deeper into Germany.
As Allied tanks and infantry bat
tered south through the treacher-
Gus, snow-bound Belgian forests,
other pilots spotted fleeing enemy
transports east OF st. With.
RAP pilots plastering couvoys est
Of st. With hkened the heavy east.
bound flow Of German tfaf1c To,
that at the height OF the enemys
fight from Normandy" front dis
patch said.
British troops from the west
ranged ahead to within Z miles
OF ,Houffalize. The Sd Army on the
south flank sped the German with
drawal in gains Of az miles on q
7-mile front west Of Bastogne that
ironed out q Smile corner on the
southwest Of the salient.
9Th Takes Over Roer Front.
These blows, coupled with the
menace posed by the 1st Army far
to the northeast. indicated the Ger
mans might be forced to fall back
all the way to the Siegfried Line
inside Germany.
The Germans were squeezed back
to scant 3-mile arc west Of the
Ourthe River before Houffalize and
the. pressure was mounting on that
strategic town.
1t was disclosed that the United
States 9th Army had taken over
almost all the Roef River front to
the north and in an attack in the
Monschau area southeast of Aachen
had knocked out four German pill
boxes. An enemy counterblow In
two-company strength in this Sec
tor was warded of.
Along the Rhine on the Alsatian
plain, the Germans appeared stalled
both north and south OF Stras-
bourg, hesitant to cut loose with a
big punch with the United States
7th and French 1st Armies still hold
ing back strong reserves.
German broadcasts made no
claims of gains, but asserted that
the French had lost 5000 troops in
the bitter lighting south of Stras-
bourg.)
Hodges Attacks Before Dawn.
It. Gen. Courtney H. Hodges gen.
eral attack struck the Germans be-
fore dawn.
The 30th Infantry Division
charged out from positions between
Stayelot and Malmedy, 10 miles
northwest Of st. With, and swung
south nearly mile without en-
(See WESTERN FRONT, Page AS