Imperial Valley Press

Panzer Troops Fail to Halt Patch Advance
Yankees Push Farther in Latest Occupation of "Holy Soil:"
Siege Tightens on Cologne Line

PARIS, Dec. 16. (UP)—The Germans rushed crack panzer reserves into battle in the upper Rhineland Saturday in an effort to halt the latest American penetration of the "holy soil" of the Reich, but the Seventh army hammered out new gains against almost pointblank fire from the Siegfried line.

At least two and probably more of Lieutenant General Alexander M. Patch's Seventh army divisions already were across the German border at the Wissenbourg gate near the eastern tip of France, and others rapidly were approaching the frontier along a 19 mile front.

WIPING OUT NAZIS

To the north, battles of attrition—which Lieutenant General Omar N. Bradley, commander of the 12th army group, said were costing the Germans four to five men for every American lost—raged on in the other two American bridgeheads inside Germany.

The American First army tightened its siege arc around the Roer river stronghold of Duren on the Cologne plain by smashing the last enemy resistance in Gurzenich, Birgel and Kufferath, all one half to three and a half miles south of Duren, and won high ground in that area overlooking the Roer.

Other First army troops liquidated the last two German pockets along a 16-mile stretch of the Roer north of Duren, mopping up a factory area southeast of Mariaweiler and capturing a castle near Schophoven.

Lieutenant General George S. Patton's Third army, holding down the center of the western front, won another city block in Saarlautern in the face of stiff enemy resistance and ground out advances of up to a mile and a half along an 11-mile front near Habkirchen, to the southeast.

Elements of Patton's 35th division entered the burning German village of Nieder-Gladbach, six miles northeast of Sarreguemines, and nearby Erchingen. Fighter-bombers supported the ground forces in the Saar valley, striking defended positions and communications behind the enemy lines.