Evening star., 1945-01-28
Potton's Forces
Take ii Towns in
4-MiIe Advance
MAP on Page AL
By the Associated Press.

PARIS, sunday, Jan. 3D.
Troops Of the United States Sd
Army reached the German from
tier at five places yesterday after
sweeping up II Belgian and Lux
embourg towns in gains of nearly
4 miles as the harassed Germans
withdrew behind the natural
barriers to Germany all along
the western front.
The Sd Army, in pushing to the
Our River in several places, emu
lated the United States 9th Army
and the British I'd Army, which
have reached the west banks of the
Roer River system to the north.
Thus, three Allied armies are
poised on the banks of river barriers
to the Reich.
Roofing the last Germans from
Clerpaux, once a German anchor In
Northern Luxembourg, Sd Army di-
visions engulfed all but a.mile and
a half of the skyline highway to
st. With, and squeezed the enemy
back to within mile or two of the
Siegfried Line along 23-mile front.
Villages Quickly Mouuped Up.
One force reached the Our River
at the Belgian German border 9Iz
miles south of st. With, where
cluster of four villages were quickly
mopped up.
Other forces ranged along the
Our farther south at the Luxem-
bourg- German border. There was
little resistance except on the ex-
treme south flank. where reconnais-
sance forces knocked out a panther
tank and two self-propelled guns
before Withdrawing from Weller, 2
miles west of the border.
The enemy's northern Alsatian
venture, which this week threatened
the provinces capital of Strasbourg.
ebbed so low that United States
Seventh Army forces were able to
make only patrol contacts along the
20-mile front as they plowed
through deep snowbanks.
The only activity reported was
mopping up IN Schillersdorf, %
miles northwest Of Strasbourg, and
there was feeling on that front
that the German scheme to break
across the. Moder River line IN an
attempt to reconquer Alsace had
been frustrated.
Swinging up to Roer.
The main forces of the United
States 9th and British I'd Armies
were swinging up to the Roer River
system at the gateway to the Ruhr
and Rhineland unopposed by the
enemy, who has chosen to stand on
the east bank.
The United States 1st Army was
about a mile from the German bor-
der-its closest approach since the
Ardennes break-through-after an
advance of nearly mile to a point
3 miles southeast Of st. With. Other
wise that front was quiet.
Sixth miles to the south, the left
wing of the Sd Army was also about
a mile from the Reich and the
Siegfried Line, after a 3-mile ad-
vance by the 17th Air-borne Divi-
sion.
Both Armies, writing off the bat
tie of the Ardennes, were virtually
unopposed, a condition existing all
along the western front as the Ger
man Army crawaed into its defen-
sive shell with, hammer blows fall
ing against it on the eastern front.
Rail Traffic Heavy.
For the second straight day Allied
reconnaissance pilots flying through
thick weather reported a heavy flow
of rail traffic eastward from the
whole Ruhr region, possibly for the
eastern front.
This might mean a shift of
boarded military material to the
Russian front or it could be that
mobile reserves from the western
front are heading east. 1t was
known that the German air force
was steadily withdrawing its strength
from the west to bolster the eastern
defenses.
1t. Gen. George S. Patton's Sd
Army patrols plodded up to the Our
River, forming the border between
Luxembourg and Germany, at. a
point about three miles below the
duchy's northern tip. Not a single
German was sighted.
The 90th Infantry Division, swing