The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-01-04

Inahed back in sufficient strength to contain the threat, the dispatch yaio.
 Far to the southeast, It. Gen. Alexander M. Patch's U. S. Seventh Army had checked at most points she German drive which pushed his forces out of Germany and back across the LauteT river.
 In some sectors the troops of the Seventh bounced back to seize the initiative, and some lost ground was rezained. The village of Wilden5u,n, northwest of Reipertswiller, was re- captured, ana v.he north a bri5S cattle for Philippsoourg was in pro- gress.
 The main German pressure !n inc Eiardt MouutaiEs waS being eXcI'ed m the southeastern and southwest rrr corners of the penetration, where tn eNaz!s were seeking to break out onto flatland suitable Ter ;ank warfare.
 Supreme headquarters saId patch's forces had withdrawn more than five miles in the Wissembourg Zap. losing Wissembourg and other towns. They had fallen back belo" The Lauter river, abandoning pridgehead in Germany that once Was 10 miles wide and maximum of three deep. Now they were es- tablished in some place as far south as the forts of the Old Maglnot Line.
 United Press Correspondent John McDermott fin a dispatch from the First Army front said the initial impact of Hodges offensive crump- led the forward German delenseS and carried forward up to two miles.
 Supreme headquarters reports that the gains had been xtended at leasc three and a half miles did not make clear the exact time involved, but It was evident that the accounts here still were tagging well behind the events.
 Counter Attacks Halted
 As the new offensive opened, word came from the American Seventh Army front along the Saar and Rhine to the southeast that large scale German counter erattacks on those sectors had been virtually halted after the Americans had abandoned some of their footholds inside the Siegfried line.
 Tanks, troops and guns of It. Gen. Courtney H. Hodges U. 5. First Army Command swung for ward to the attack at 3:3O a. m. Wednesday, 19 days almost to the hour from the time the Nazis moved out of their Siegfried line on Dec. IS to open their own winter offen- sive.
 The scale of the new drive was indicated by the fact that Hodges sent his forces into action under low-hanging clouds that stripped the Americans of all direct aerial support at the outset and permit ted the enemy to shift their re- serves inside the pocket without fear of attack from the air Heavy snows were reported falling all across the front early today,
 With almost half their 20 di- visions pinned down by Patton's attack in the south, there appeared little likelihood that the Germans could avoid committing their re- maining forces to the showdown battle.
 Headquarters made it clear that this was the big Allied bid to en- gage and destroy the 100000 crack troops and hundreds of tanks that Marshal Karl Von Rundstedt had drawn from Germany's last strate- gic reserves for his great gamble.
 From their jump-off point below Grandmenil the attacking forces described in First Army announce -lnent as Allied" were barely F miles from Houlfalize, the pivot of all Nazi communications inside the salient. Patton's troops in the Bas- togne sector on the southern flank were barely half that distance from Houffalize, and their convergine thrusts menaced considerable Nag armored forces caught in the vest ern half of the Salient more than 20 miles west of the Bastogne- Houffalize- -Grandmcnil read.
 Dure Captured
 United Press War Correspondent Ronald Clark reported that the Allies knocked off the nose of the German Salient in the Rochefort area yestrday with the capture Of Bure, three miles to the south. Sig niflcantly, he added that there Wal no indication that the Germans were eXtricating their forces iron the western end of the bulge in spite of the new Allied threat to theil rear.
 The enemy now commands only two major roads eastward in tht Salient and both are iced and snowy and difficult to traverse" Clark re' ported.
 Patton's Third Army Forces meanwhile, were locked in a savage battle with six German armoreC divisions and four infantry units north and west of Bastogne, witt the Nazls throwing in everything a their command in an attempt tt blunt the American thrust.
 Gambling that his northern wint