Evening star., 1945-01-08
Gains by 1st and Sd Armies Cut
German Escape Gap to 10 Miles;
Threat to Strasbourg Lessening
Enemy Speeds
Withdrawal in
Belgian Bulge
MAP on Page A-4.)
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
PARIS, Jan. 8.-Advances of a
mile or more today by the Amer
lean 1st and Sd Armies in the
worst blizzard of the winter mar
rowed the waist of the Belgian
salient to less than 10 miles and
caused Field Marshal Won Rund-
stedt to speed the withdrawal of
his survivors from the western
tip OF the salient.
1t. Gen. Courtney H. Hodges 1st
Army captured five villages and
won domination of Is miles of the
st. Vith-Laroche highway, one of
the two last escape routes for three
crack panzer divisions in the toe
of the sock of the bulge. The
other road, leading up through
Houffalize, was under artillery fire
from both sides of the salient.
Meanwhile, the German diversion
ary threat to Strasbourg was de-
scribed officially as apparently
lessened. The Allies hurled in coun-
terattacks against German armor
which speared north of the Rhine
city from the Colmar pocket. They
wrested back some of the ground
lost miles north of Strasbourg on
the west bank of the Rhine.
Other Route Under Fire.
In the Ardennes salient in Bel
gium and Luxembourg, a two way
American attack from north and
south not only cut one of the last
two German supply and retreat
routes in the bulge, but brought the
other under close range artillery fire
in the area west of Bastogne on
the south.
The Sd Army on the south cap
tured Flamierge, only 2 miles from
the last German road leading from
Libramont through Houffalize to
st. With.
American and British assault
teams on the 30-mile attack front
on the northern side of the bulge
kept up their slow, measured gains
and the British 9Th Air-Borne Divi-
sion, veterans of Normandy, kept
three crack German armored divi-
sionsi tied up in heavy battle at the
toe OF the sock.
Nazis Reinforced.
The Germans had reinforced their
Colmar pocket below Strasbourg,
captured Witternheim and Friesen-
helm and driven north along the
Rhine-Rhone Canal within 18 miles
OF Strasbourg. Supreme headquar-
tiers said lighting continued north
OF these towns"
(The Germans claimed gains
north and south of Strasbourg
and asserted that the American
position inside the city was Sc
rious. They said the old Maginot
Line had been penetrated south
OF Wissembourg and that Ger
mans in the Belgian bulge were
holding firm. The enemy claimed
the recapture of the Holland vii
lage of 'Hemmen, northwest of
Nijmegen, which they said the
Canadians took on January A.
In Holland, German bridgehead
across the Meuse River north of
Venlo held firm against Allied at
tacks. Supreme headquarters said
the Allies were mopping up still an
other German unit which crossed
the Meuse east of Geertruidenberg,
38smiles northeast of Antwerp.
American counterblows were de-
clared beating back a German
spearhead which last week gouged
within 10 miles of the Saverne Pass,
threatening to cut off Strasbourg.
Fighting flared f1ercely against
the latest German onslaughts onto
the northern edge of the Alsace
Plain, where the United States 7th
Army has been pushed back miles
through the Wissembourg Gap. At
points, the Germans were within 6
miles of the important base of
Haguenau.
1st Army Gains 2 Miles,
The 20 divisions comprising Field
Marshal Karl Won Rundstedt's three
armies in the Ardennes bulge were
flghting stubbornly as the American
lst and Sd Armies and elements of
the 9th Army, and the British I'd
Army compressed the perimeter of
the salient.
South OF captured -Lierneaux the
1st Army advanced 2 miles. La
Falaise and Fraiture were captured
and the ice-covered st. Vith-La
Roche road was cut at three spots.
One Of these cuts was made by
"Hogan's Task Force" a celebrated
unit of the Sd Armored Division
led by 1t. Col. Sam Hogan of Pharr
and Fort Worth, Tex.
The Sd Army on the south in
creased the threat to the Germans