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FURTHER ALLIED ADVANCES
Offensive Continues
in Spite of Snow
LONDON, Monday.-The first Army to-day is keeping up
the offensive through the rugged Ardennes country after a heavy
overnight snowfall, says Reuter's correspondent with the Ameri
cans. All forces jumped off to attack at the first light to-day
while snow was still falling. The Second Armored Division to-day
is battling up to the crest of a ridge from which it will be able to
dominate the enemy's southern supply route. The Americans
are fighting in the outskirts of Bochamps, four miles north-east
of Laroche. On the right infantry have occupied Marcourary, two
and a half miles north-west of Laroche.
Further advances along the northern flank of the Ardennes
reported from Reuter's correspondent with the Americans include
the capture of Regne, two miles south of Lierneux, and Sart, three
miles south-west of Vielsalm. The latter was cleared after stiff
resistance. The First Army yesterday took 858 prisoners.
Field-Marshal Montgomery's British and
American armor and infantry edged for
ward all along the front from Marche t
Stavelot yesterday in what Montgomery's
spokesman described as a "nice day for
the record," says Reuter's corresponden
at Montgomery's headquarters. Gains
ranged from three miles by the Americans
south of Stavelot, against relatively light
opposition, to threequarters of a mile in a
British advance south of Marche against
stiff resistance.
Thc main development occurred in the
centre of the northern front, where Allietd
armor in several places cut the lateral
road from St. Vith to Laroche, which the
Allies are now firmly astride. German
resistance here is described as moderate.
The Americans farther east pushed one
mile, and a quarter beyond Abrefontaine,
threatening to cut the highway again
south of Vielsalm.
Montgomery's spokesman confirmed
that the British withdrawal from Bure
was a strategic withdrawal from an
unhealthy situation, and was not the
result ot an enemy attack.
The brunt of the western tip of the
salient is being borne by the famous Brit
ish Sixth Airborne Dividion.
General Patton's troops yesterday ad
vanced one mile northward on a three
mile front north-west of Bastogne, says
Reuter's correspondent with the U.S.
Third Army. The Americans are now
within half a mile of Flamierge, which is
near the main Bastogne-Marche highway.
The German Newsagency says the
Ardennes battle now centres on Houfful
ize. "The Americans penetrated the
German lines in the Fraiture area," it
adds, "but German tanks held them at a
road fork west of Fraiture."
German Bridgehead
Aerial reports show that the Germans
have established a good-size bridgehead
about seven miles north of Strasbourg,
even to the extent of having considerable
motor transport, says Reuter's correspon
dent at S.H.A.E.F. Refugees are report
ed to be streaming out of the Strasbourg
and Haguenau regions, thus bringing into
startling prominence the swift deteriora
tion of the Allied positions in northern
Alsace in the past week.
Reuter's correspondent with the U.S.
Seventh Army says heavy German railway
guns firing from the east bank of the
Rhine shelled Haguenau all day yesterday.
The latest information places the Ger
mans in Herlisheim aud Offendorf, from
which they were previously believed to
have been cleared, and also in Gumbsheim
and Drusenheim, all of which are along
the main Strasbourg-Seltz road aud rail
way.
The Germans brought up more troops
yesterday morning and attacked towards
Ruhrwiller, six miles south-east of Hagu
enau, but American artillery and tank de
stroyers met the onslaught, setting fire to
four German tanks. Allied fighter-bomb
ers attacked river crossings where German
tanks were seen moving on both sides of
the Rhine.
The Germans' Alsatian salient on
the Palantinate border is steadily
shrinking. The Americans in the
past few days have regained 12 square
miles at the southern end of the
salient.
They launched an attack to mop up 500
Germans tactically encircled in Wingen,
but found the main enemy force gone; it
had slipped out through a pass in the
hills, where it met another American
force, which engaged it.
Farther south French First Army out
posts withdrew from Neunkirehen in the
face of a tank attack.
The German Newsagency says the
Americans launched attack after attack
along the front from Saaroguemines to
south of Bitche. A number of advanced
German groups fell back in the lower
Vosges.
Gruelling Conditions
"In bitter cold, through snow and sleet,
American soldiers are going ahead of
tanks, scattering sand on the ice-covered
roads so that the First Army's drive shall
not lag," says a Reuter's correspondent
on the Eastern Front. "As an illustra
tion of conditions two men were able to
move a tank which had side-slipped to the
side of the road. They pushed and the
tank glided on a sheet of ice like a toy.
"American infantrymen who for 10
days fought and tried to snatch food
and sleep in between battles in these
appalling conditions are doing a mag
nificent job.
"When four German tanks entrenched
in a deep gorge area, supported by cun
ningly-placed mortars and 88-millimetre
guns, held up the First Army's advance
American infantry patrols ploughed their
way through hilly terrain on the flanks.
Great snowdrifts, snow-hidden gullies and
thick copses barred the way to the enemy
strongpost; yet the infantry travelled the
heart-breaking stretch of country and
poured fire into the enemy. The Germans,
in the face of this flanking attack pulled
out, enabling the main columns to con
tinue their advance.
"It took my Jeep driver three and a
half hours to make a nightmare 60-mile
journey through driving snow over icy
ronds in the darkness to send this mes
sage. When I complimented the driver
on his work he said: 'The boys at the
front are doing this all the time.'
"That is the spirit of these American
troops."
Attacks on Communications
Allied air attacks on the Rhineland
and the network of road and rail com
munications behind the battlefront and
creating a situation almost identical with
that in France when the German High
Command found it almost impossible to
employ normal means of transport for
reinforcement of the Normandy defend
ers. The Germans are now compelled to
abandon all rail transport at an increas
ingly long distance from the front, and
recent reports indicate that front line
troops are finishing the journey by ardu
ous forced marches and on bicycles.
The last stops for front line troop
trains are scattered along badly bat
tered tracks between Coblenz and
Bonn.
There now seems little doubt that
major Allied bombing raids and fighter
bomber attacks on motor transport, to
gether with the technical difficulties of
having superior air forces over the sal
ient itself, account for the breakdown in
von Rundstedt's forward supply system
and his failure to push through sufficient
fuel and ammunition for armored spear
heads.
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