The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • 2

THE SUN, BALTIMORE. MONDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 11. 1944 TAGE 2 1ST ARMY GAINS sguised Forts Of Siegfried Line TO GET REST OVER A MILE Cover Every Section Of Dillingen PLANES RANGE 9TH ARMY LINE German Towns, Gun Positions Hit Ground Action Quiet Will Be Returned From West Troops Press Ahead Between By LEE McCARDELL (Continued from Page 1) General Patton Visits The Front when the Americans entered, but there was a subdued glow from within one factory with smoking chimneys beyond the railroad "Vk DORTMUND I "A HOLLAND XTLT' BELGIUM 1 cobliC 'A GERMANY tuxtMBouns yj 1 i jui.ii 8 i'i WMiWI a rrk' sr Bf HOLBROOK BRADLEY ISunpapers War Correspondent With U.S. 9th Army, Dec. 10 IBy P.adio1 Dive bombers of Brig.

Gen. Richard E. Nugent's 29th Tactical Air Command ranged the front today to attack a series of towns and gun positions, while I ground activities were maintained i by scattered patrols along the Roer lUver. Under broken skies which cave the first break in bad weather in 24 hours. Thunderbolts strafed and I bombed small towns, principally in the area above Linnich, while other F-47's escorted medium bombers bound on missions over Duren.

Two dive bombers of the 29th Tactical took advantage of the fly- ing conditions to make "a rhubarb" mission on enemy positions directly east of the Rhine. Loaded with their full capacity of machine-gun ammunition, but without bombs. they scoured the Reich in this area to strafe any military targets that appeared, then returned with- out damage to themselves, West Bank Cleared In the vicinity of Julich, where 9th Army troops have completed I the operation of cleaning up the west side of the Roer, there has been little action other than occa-! sional mortar and artillery fire on open ground and the sports arena. Patrols along the banks of the Roer report little sign of the enemy directly across the river in the town, which, even from the distance, appears to be as badly blitzed as any German towns we've yet been through. 1 Although the main effort during the operation of clearing the river was aimed at German strong points and arras of resistance on this side, our artillery aid air attacks have both been concentrating a good deal of hich explosives and bomb i loads on the supply dumps, com-i munication channels and military installations to the enemy's rear.

As the center of much of the ep- emy's activities, Julich has suf-- fered accordingly. Means Steady Drain This battle of the Roer, which has been the center of the 9th Army i fighting during the past week or ten days, is a small part of the en- tire Allied operation along the Western front, but it has meant a tracks. Then, as the firing increased, German workmen rushed out of the factory with their sleeves still rolled up. The whole town turned out to be full of civilians. They gathered in the reinforced-concrete base ments of the larger buildings and more than 100 men, women and children crowded Into one big cellar.

American guards were placed over them, but it has not been practical to evacuate them. They seemed fairly well provided with food, and as the battle has continued around them, they have supplemented their staple supplies with late vegetables from garden patches and with fresh-killed pork and poultry from pig pens and chicken yards behind their homes. The town's municipal water supply was cut off, but the faucets are still running in the captured pillboxes. Billeted In Basements The Americans crossed the Saar without their bedrolls. The soldiers have been billeting themselves as best they can in basements of the buildings they occupy.

Their only regular rations are cold K's, but they ve also been eating German eggs and chickens and the German Army rations with which the pillboxes are well stocked. Because a smoking chimney during the daylight is a dead giveaway that a house is occupied, the sol diers haven't dared build fires until dark. The weather has been cold with occasional snow along the Saar, and those men who had to wade through the mud and water when they crossed the river were pretty uncomfortable until they dried out. They now hold all the buildings facing the railway track. They hold the main railway station and have captured the tunnel leading under the tracks to a pillbox on the other side.

In one of their frequent counterattacks, the Germans captured some Americans in this pillbox yesterday, but about half were re captured when the Americans sallied forth to counterattack the Germans withdrawing with their prisoners. Prisoners Evacuated The. Americans have taken be tween 200 and 400 German pris oners in Dillingen and evacuated all of them back across the river. Heavy German artillery fire makes the river crossing hazardous during daylight hours. The Germans knocked out one footbridge built by American engineers soon after the original crossing.

Now most move ment back and forth across the river takes place after dark. At least once every day the Ger mans counterattack the Americans with tanks and infantrymen. Dur ing the early stages of the battle for the town, our troops were without either tanks or tank destroyers but armored vehicles and anti-tank guns are now across the river, and the Americans are proceeding with the methodical task of attacking and cleaning out the German pill boxes, one by one. Several pillboxes have been blasted to pieces by direct Ameri can artillery fire from west of the Saar, and there has been heavy and close American artillery sup port from across the river against the German counterattacks. At times, our own shells have fallen within 50 yards of the American front-line positions.

Refuge In Caves West of the river scores of Ger man civilian refugees from the town of Wallerfangen have taken refuge in caves along the cliffs fac ing Dillingen. Like Dillcngen's ci vilian refugees and those of half a dozen villages who have taken cover in Franz von Papen's mushroom cave at Siersdorf, they come out during lulls in the artillery fire to forage for food and draw buckets of water. A German-speaking American sergeant now quartered in a German house in the village of Gis-ingen tells the story of having over- By LEE McCARDELL With 3d U.S. Army in Germany. Dec.

10 By Radiol "Gen. George S. Patton, came out to visit our front lines, and I took Mm down the road to our forward observation post right here," said an officer of the 90th Division, running his finger over the division headquarters map to a point on the very edge of the Saar River within a few hundred yards of the German posl tions across the river. "The general was wearing a light overcoat With that polished hat of his, those pearl-handled re volvers and white stick he was carryingwell, he was obviously at least a staff officer to any Jerry who might have seen him. We reached the observation post without drawing any fire, but as soon as we were inside the Germans put down a concentration of about 50 mortar shells.

I took the general back by a roundabout way, through an apple orchard, but there isn't much cover in an apple orchard without any leaves on the trees. Boy, I sure was glad when he left!" General Patton left all in one piece, under his own power. heard several members of that household talking while they butchered a pig in the backyard ester day. One "These Americans aren't so bad. At least they have their own food.

If the German Army was still here we'd have to give them 80 per cent of this pork. As it is, we can keep all this for ourselves. Fighting In Factory East of Sarrccurmincs the Ameri cans today made further slight advances of less than a mile along a 6-mile front. A ceramic factory in Sarreguemines was the scene of close fighting as our infantry used hand grenades to flush Germans from the cover of the factory machinery. In Fraulautern, American in fantry fought another pitched battle with the Germans in a large hotel ballroom.

In Fraulautern, Saarlouis-Roden and Enddorf other Siegfried Line towns sev eral houses were found to contain two or three levels of fortified base ments like those of Dillingen. Allies Must Liquidate Fascism, Russians Say Moscow, Dec. 10 (JP) The Allied powers must completely liquidate Fascism in Europe to win the peace, Russian newspapers said today. Hailing the victorious wartime alliance of Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union, Red Star declared "freedom-loving nations faced the task of clearing liberated territories of political time-bombs." This time, it added, Germany "must be completely disarmed militarily, politically and economically." Pravda warned, "it is necessary to watch vigilantly against intrigues of Hitlerites in 'neutral countries as well as the activities of collaborationists in countries lib erated Correspondent Sees No Victory UntU Fall New York, Dec. 10 (A3) Don Whitehead, Associated Press war correspondent just returned from the Western front, said tonight he thought that Germany would not be defeated before next fall.

Speaking on the radio program. "We the People," Whitehead added: "And I also think that the Ger man people won't crack because they aren't organized to overthrow the Government. They work and fight together because they have to Yet among those Germans inside our lines there is no community spirit binding them together. of the Saar through Dillingen. The men of Loomis's regiment have ad vanced through the town as far as those railway tracks.

Farther north other troops of the 90th Division have crossed the tracks and reached the hill above the town. The Saar River, out of its banks here, meanders past the town through strips of muddy flats about 1,000 yards wide. The river, flats and town are veiled in haze and gray smoke pouring from generators set up by American rngincers along the river road west of the Saar and in that part of Dillingen occupied by our troops. Modern Apartments From this side of the Saar Dillen- gen looks like an ordinary manu facturing town dominated by the towering brick chimneys of its steel mills and factories. The factory chimneys were smoking the morn ing American troops crossed the river.

Until a week ago German tanks were being made in one of those factories, according to pris oners of war. It is a highly modern factory town, say Americans who have been across t'ie river. After the prim itive country villages in Lorraine through which they have been fight ing these last few months, Dillingen's flats and duplex dwell ings with tiled baths and kitchens, up-to-date plumbing and modern furniture came as a distinct sur prise. Even more surprising, however, were Dillingen's camouflaged and concealed pillboxes, built inside many homes. The larger pillboxes bad tiers of bunks lor nneen-man garrisons.

Pillboxes were also equipped with electric lights, stoves, automatic ventilators and a special water system Independent of that supplying the town. One To Every Block "There seems to be at least one pillbox to every block of houses in the town," said Lieut. Thomas J. Mann, of Kansas City, one of the artillery observers to whom we talked. "They appear to have been constructed after the houses were built." With three other artillery observers Lieut.

Leo Cross, of Cam bridge, Lieut. Dominic Di Angelo, of Watkms Glen, in.x. and Sergt. Leo Buller, of Spring field. S.D.

Mann crossed the Saar with the first infantry to enter the town. Troops crossed the river by as sault boats shortly after 4 A.M., wading through several feet of mud and water on the far shore. They passed through the outer belt of pillboxes and entered houses on the outskirts of the town while it was still dark. The Germans were unaware of the crossing until the Americans opened fire on two sur prised sentries in the street and began blowing up the captured pill boxes. Thought It Was A Barn "We were silting beside some sort of barn or outbuilding, waiting for the infantry to clean out a "house near by.

when somebody called from inside the building and we discovered it was a pillbox with two machine guns," said Mann. "A little later, not far away we found an armored German obser vation post with two machine guns, telephones and fire-direction equip ment." Practically all street intersex tions were subject to crossfire from concealed pillboxes, many with gun slits at the street level. The larger pillboxes were armed with cannon of about 100-mm. caliber. Most of the pillboxes were manned by three to five Germans.

The Americans were unaware as to how generally the Germans had camouflaged their defensive positions within other buildings until they began receiving fire from a garage which they had captured and left behind them when they advanced into the town. Going back to the garage they discovered a pillbox inside of it. Then they be gan finding pillboxes under garden summer houses and in the base ments of dwellings. The town had been blacked out NEW ALLIED Among Allied advances on the Western front yesterday were the 1st Army's capture of Gey in a new drive on the Roer llivcr front, the Trench 1st Army's enlry into Thann, northwest of Mulhousc, and the American 7th Army's capture of Kallenhousc near Haguenau. White area is Allied-held.

4 Escaped German Prisoners Are Recaptured In Bomber Front For Month's Furlough By HOLBROOK BRADLET ISunpapers War Correspondent! With U.S. 9th Army, Germany. Dec. 10 By Radiol The 12th Army group tonight announced that 1,375 veterans of the European campaign will be returned home during December for a full month's rest, after which they will be returned to their units. In releasing the details, army officials stated that not more than eight per cent will be officers and that quotas for the 12th Army group riU be subdivided among the 1st, 3d and 9th armies on the basis of the number of days their divisions have been in combat.

On Priority Basis Selection among the troops will be on a priority basis, with the first choice going to the men who have been twice hospitalized for wounds and second to those who have been twice decorated for bravery. Those with six months' service in combat areas who can present adequate proof of serious emer gencies at home which require their presence are placed third on the list. Next In order are doughboys who have served more than six months in combat and finally exceptional cases other than the first two priorities which are of such serious nature as to warrant waiving the six months' requirement. After the men have been selected, they will be ordered to report to a ground force replacement depot Troops of the 9th Army to report by December 1st Army men by December 10 and those from the 3d by December 11. From these depots the soldiers will be shipped to reception centers serving thetr home states.

Necd'Not Come Home The time spent by these men at their homes and in traveling will not be counted against their accumulated leave or furlough with the exception of those spending their time at home in Alaska. Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Canal Zone. The. men selected can spend the time at some other place rather than at their home if they wish. In any event the men will be allowed a full month of leave in addi-' tion to time spent traveling.

V-E Day Delay Blamed On Britain And Russia Washington. Dec. 10 (yP) The Army and Navy Journal holds that British and Russian "preoccupation" with affairs in eastern and southern Europe prolonged the war with Germany past December 7. The unofficial service publication says: "Since D-day in France, greater preoccupation has been shown by Russia in her Baltic and. Balkan campaigns, intended to insure her security, and by Great Britain in Italy.

Greece and Albania, to pro-te her life line through the Mediterranean, than in achievement of the prime objective of our armies the prompt defeat of Germany and concentration of aU possible power to that end. "The result has been that the expectation in Washington that the war in Europe would be over by the Pearl Harbor anniversary, this week, has not been realized." Chilean-Suss Ties Forecast Santiago, Dec. 10 VP) Santiago newspapers said today Chile would establish relations with Russia tomorrow. SPORT NEWS! WCAO at 6:15 P. M.

gift that w'tll keep htm home at nigUti That's our leisure jacket Great or re laxing. Solid colors and fancy patterns. $15 Hamburgers through this SUN-AD MODERN Cape Cod cottage. 7 bath ft laundry insulated; storm sash. Armagh Village, nr.

Charles off Bellor.a ave. By appointment only. Evergreen 304. FOR HOUSE I SOLD I list DAY I i with the controls by the light of Julich And Hurtgen By MARK S. WATSON (Continued from Page 1) stantjy pulling closer to the road center of Haugenau, having cap tured Neiderbronn, Bischwiller, Marienthal and Obenhoffer.

Editor's Note The Associated Press reported that the 79th In fantry Division of the 7th Army had entered Haguenau, normally a city of 16,000 population and the largest base still held by the Germans in France. Quite apart from today heavy bomber operations, we had a good many mediums and fighter-bomb ers in the air. the latter supporting our 1st Army operations with vig orous attacks on rail bridges and troop concentrations in near-by towns. Tanks Are Attacked In support of the 3d Army, the air force attacked a number of enemy tanks, five railway trains and farther south struck at a bridge over the Rhine at Breisbach, which is being used by the enemy to reach his troops in Colmar. In the British area our planes struck ahead at railway yards and bridges.

In excellent imitation of the enemy recent action in break ing a dam to flood the British zone, they struck at a canal near Zupthen and a dam below Nijmegen in order to add to the enemy's difficulties in Holland. Channel Island Relief May Atcait War's End London, Dec. 10 (JP) The libera tion of Britain's own Channel is lands must wait perhaps until the end of the war while British troops fight elsewhere, It was reported here today. They're a part of Britain the islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alder ney and Sark, nestled a few miles off the Cherbourg peninsula but their, military importance is con sidered insufficient to divert a liberating force from the main task of invading Germany. It is estimated the German garri son on the islands numbers about 15.000.

To attack them with guns and bombs would mean casualties among the 65,000 Britons who remain there. No Soap, No Medicine Herbert Hopgood, a secretary of the Channel Islands Refugee Association, declared today that starvation and lack of medical supplies under German rule threaten as great a loss of life as bombs and shells might cause. There is no clothing available for replacements and no fuel but wood. There is no soap, no tea, no medicines, no flour. Fortnightly rations include two ounces of meat while supplies last, five pounds of potatoes, and nine pounds of bread made with sea water.

Hopgood said there have been epidemics of diphtheria, scarlet fever and influenza. French High Court Rejects Treason Verdict Paris, Dec. 10 (fl) The Appellate Court at Lyon today refused to uphold the. conviction and death sentence meted out by a collaboration court to Angelo Angeli, Vichy regional prefect, and ordered a new trial the first time that this has occurred since the purge trials were begun in France. Former Mayor Marrant of Sol- lies-Pont in southern France was condemned to death on a collabo-rationist charge at Toulon.

Petain Ministers' Trials Start Today Paris, Dec. 10 IReuterl A commission of the High Court of Justice will begin here tomorrow its examination of the dossiers of the ministers of the Petain government accused of treason. The commission, whose sittings will be at the Chamber of Deputies, is composed of eleven mem bers five magistrates and six mem bers nominated by the Consulta tive Assembly. 220 N. Charlai Street' Qown Salon THE 'JEWELED LOOK ON SMART BLACK SEQUIN-STARRED black rayon crop of finest quality with a filmy mar-quitett curved yoke, long ileeves and ilim-at-pencil lines.

True Gown Salon distinction! Missel's sizes. 35- SECOND FLOOR steady drain of men, equipment and supplies to the outfits engaged in the job. The importance of holding the ground up to the river's edge from Linnich to below Julich is sig- nificant in that the Germans are now denied any bridgehead for a possible counterattack once our drive east Degms to move again. 'If the enemv were able to hold even a small area to the west of the Roer, we would have the possi bility of an attack on our flank as a coristant threat. Tonight the battlefield is littered with the human and material cost, i both to the Allies and the enemy, of this important ground.

They Lie Where They Fell Americans who gave their lives the desperate earlier attempts and final drive that captured the strong points lie where they fell 'in the muddy, war-torn German fields and blasted woods. The gray- green-clad bodies of the enemy are Eprawled out over the earth and concrete emplacements near by. In this fight, as in all those through the weary days in France Belgium and Holland, it was the troops in the line, the noncommis- sioned officers and the lieutenants who commanded the squads and platoons upon whom full credit for the success we have enjoyed rightly rests. These are the boys who keep movins when the odds seemed un beatable, and who didn't give up but went back for more when it almost looked as if the fight were or too sun. And on the battlefield today ie the men of these squads and pla toons who died to bring this suc- cess.

In an army as gigantic as the Allies' now is, one is apt to forgot i that every time the map makers 1 move a line forward, or put up a new flag, the gains have been made at the cost of irreplaceable Ameri- can blood. Hailed At Moiiierliouse By PRICE DAT (Continued from Page 1) i youngsters and almost always de fended well. Often these are formed into 4 groups such as that on the hill be yond Mouterhouse. The knot that had to be taken care of to get at Mouterhouse was at Lichtenberg. This village sitting below a small medieval castle was smashed in the process.

The ruins Tof one house still smolder, lifting a swirl of blue smoke against the gray sky. To get at Lichtenberg, the town tf Wimmenau had to be taken in a way that most of the towns in these hills must be taken recon naissance, then holding frontal at tack, then bypassing action to reach the high ground beyond and finally the removal of mines and road blocks. At Wimmenau reconnaissance alone cost 30 casualties in killed jand wounded. The reconnaissance "men feeling out the town for in-. formation to send back were met with machine-gun fire from five houses in town and from two others I in the outskirts off to their right Troops Advance Slowly Between Wimmenau and Lichten- berg and again between Lichten-J berg and Mouterhouse few Ger-, mans were encountered, but our troops advanced slowly.

1 Their vehicles were held up by hundreds of trees felled across the road, and mines singly and in series with trip wires had been planted among the trees. The reconnaissance men are working dismounted most of the but food, ammunition and mail must come up to them, and at any time they may need the sup-J port of tanks and assault guns. Even without resistance between, cetting from one knot to t.hp npvt SERVICE MAN'S WATCH CHOICE! Leigh, Lancaster, England, Dec. 10 (A?) Four German prisoners of war who escaped from a camp near here last night sneaked into an American air force base, climbed into a Marauder bomber and had started its engines for an escape flight to Germany before they were overpowered and captured by a sentry. The noise of the engines and the gleam of a match in the darkened nose of the bomber attracted the sentry.

Private Arthur Seher, a military policeman from Putnam, as he was walking his beat. Experimenting With Controls He approached the plane quietly in the dark and when he saw a pair of feet jutting from the bomb-bay, he challenged the man. The other three were experimenting Diary Of Dec. 11, 1944 VP). Lieut.

Gen. Courtney II. Hodges's American 1st Army, jumping off at dawn yesterday along a snow-covered 10-mile front, captured one German village, battled into four others and was hammering back the Germans still west of the Roer River. To the south, the United States 3d Army beat ofT four attacks launched against its Saar bridgeheads. On the 3d Army's right flank, the United States 7th Army fought into Haguenau, German stronghold in France.

Troops seized Gey, four miles southwest of Duren, and struggled into Schafberg. Pier. Geich and Schophoven. in the east, Soviet troops advanced 6 miles along the Danube and captured Alsogod, 7 miles north of Budapest, as well as 40 other localities. A Moscow report said some Russian storm troops already may be fighting inside Budapest.

The Greek civil war continued with British planes blasting ELAS From arm an Fleecy Slippers Pom-pom slipper of brushed fleece in red, wine, light blue or royal blue. $4 a match. "I pulled my gun and ordered them out," Seher said. After a short struggle with the trio, who were armed with a com mando knife and a kitchen fork, he marched them off for delivery to British authorities. Wore British Trousers The prisoners were wearing Brit ish trousers and German uniform jackets.

Three of them claimed to be flyers. "When I asked them in my broken German what they were try ing to do," Seher related, "one told me they were trying to get back to Germany for Christmas. Seher today received commenda tion from the commanding general of the air service command depot to which he is attached. The War centers arouna Atnens alter an earlier ELAS attack had been re pulsed by the British. The ELAS drive was supported by mortars and artillery, while the British used planes, tanks and field guns.

uespue ou-ciegree oeiow zero weather, nearly 2,000 American warplanes poured down 1,500 tons of bombs on the congested rail yards of Coblenz and Bingen on the Rhine. American infantry, storming northward on western Leyte Island captured the port of Ormoc. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, report ing the capture by the 77th Divi sion, said many thousand Japanese in a trap south of Ormoc are unable to extricate themselves. Radio Tokyo reported an Ameri can buperlortress raid on the Japanese capital Sunday night, Nippon lime.

The reinforced Chinese Army in Kweichow province recaptured the railway town of Hsiasu, 12 miles from Liuchai on the Kwangsi provincial border. the Mail or Phone Orders Invited 5S TAX INCLUDED fa It's built for service with 17-jewel movement, sweep-second hand, luminous dial and hands it's waterproof, shockproof, nonmagnetic. Guaranteed by S. SC N. Katz! PAY ON CONVENIENT TERMS No Interest or Carrying Charge! Jewelers and Silversmiths 105-113 N.

CHARLES STREET Lexington Eutaw Eastern Conkling 2116 E. Monument 2019 W. Pratt St. ES 1 SUNPAPER I CLASSIFIED I Call the Result Number 1 LExington 7700 312 OPiN TONIGHT TILL 9 P. M.

is back-breaking work and a dan gerous task..