Evening star., 1945-02-08
Schmidt Taken,
American Forces
ImperiI Pruem
MAP ON Page A-14.)
BY the Associated Press.

PARIS, Feb. 8.-The American
1st Army today drove through
the last barriers of the double
Sigefried Line Is miles southeast
of Aachen. captured Schmidt
and neared the Roer River dams
and reservoirs which had been a
major factor in checkmating the
western front offensive last No
vember.
CToday's German communique
said preparations for the big
Allied attack continue along the
Roer." The enemy said a major
offensive was imminent with Co.
logne, the Rhine and industrial
Ruhr as objectives. American
troops outside Dueren are 20 miles
from Cologne. Capture of the
dams might prove the starting
signal for the onslaught)
The largest of the dams, the 985-
foot-thick Schwammenauel, is just
over miles from Schmidt. A COM
bat team of the 18th Lightning)
Division reached the northern bank
of its vast reservoir.
Peril to Allied Troops.
The dam system is capable of
sending an 18-foot wall of water
down the 36 miles of the Roer to
Roermond. Any troops who had
crossed the Roer to the Cologne
Plain last fall could have been
trapped by German made floods
within four hours.
Farther south Sd Army soldiers
poured through another breach in
the West Wall to within a mile and
a quarter of Pruem.
The attacks of 1t. Gen. Courtney
H. Hodges 1st Army in the Roer
headwaters area and 1t. Gen. George
S. Patton's Sd Army In the Eifel
Mountains gained the proportions OF
a major offensive. -
Pruem, major transit center for
German defenses in the center of
the Siegfried Line, was approached
by Sd Army troops from several di-
rections. The nearest column came
within sight of the town, capturing
Obermehlen. just to the northwest.
Fortifies Positions.
Gen. Patton swiftly fortified his
new invasion positions on the "a
mile front where four OF his divi-
sions were fighting in the West Wall
fortifications.
Far to the south, the French lst
Army, with four American divi-
sions, reduced the cross-Rhine pocket
below Strasbourg to less than IS
square miles along the river and east
Of the Rhine-Rhone Canal. Soldiers
moved miles south of Neufbrisach.
Organized resistance was broken in
the Vosges west of Colmar; stragglers
were being rounded up and Gagged.
Overnight, British heavy bombers
in great strength attacked enemy
troops and equipment at Kleve and
Goch, where the Siegfried Line
PI0SAo oue III VIC 1tClC1loWdlU r OIcSL.
Gen. Patton's army was pressing
on Pruem from many directions,
and, indeed, had outfanked the road
and rail center of $500. Due north
OF Pruem a force which took
Waschief after crossing the Schnee
Eifel range sent patrols into the
Pruem Forest, 2 miles from the
town. The Goth Division advanced
a half mile to point just less than
7 miles southwest. The Goth took
Hollnich and cleared many Siegfried
pillboxes.
Counterattacks Beaten Of.
The Germans put in four counter
attacks in company strength with
tanks in the Pruem area. All were
beaten off.
Front dispatches reported no
deepening of the 10 new penetration
areas of Germany opposite Luxem-
bourg. but the troops across the
flooded Sure and Our Rivers famed
out and widened their Judgments on
the east banks. The 80th (Blue
Ridge) Division took Wallendorf on
the border at the confluence of the
two rivers.
Farther north, the 18th Air borne
Division took Dasbourg in a half
mile gain. Enemy resistance along
the Sure and Our remained sturdy.
Two more counterattacks were re-
pulsed in the area of the deepest
penetration, half mile north of
old Echternach.
Schmidt had been seized by the