October 2, 1944;

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, OCTOBER 2, 1944:

RACINE, WIS, MONDAY AFTERNOON, OCTOBER 2, 1944.

Artillery and Air

Assault Breaks

Two-Week Lull

LONDON (AP) —

The U. S. First army drove a steel wedge two miles deep on a six-mile front north of Aachen today. The fighting spread along a front of 20 miles and broke out at points as f a r a s 54 miles north of Aachen. American cavalry attacked at Ha v e r t G e r m a n y , while American armor advanced toward the Meuse at Overloon.

LONDON. — (AP) —

 Warrior veterans of the U. S. First army struck one of the mightiest blows of t h e war in the west today in a new offensive toward the Rhine from their positions in the Siegfried line near Aachen.

Surging into the rubble of German defenses almost before the debris had stopped flying from one of the greatest aerial and land bombardment, t h e Americans were I reported pouring through a lane r u i n pointed at t h e R h i n e between  Cologne and Dusseldorf, s i d e! to t h e R u h r and m a i n highway Berlin.

Villagers Watch.

I doubt if t h e y will stop u n t i l they have reached, R h i n e , " said one front l i n e  correspondents. Lt. Gen. Courtney H. Hoil  i n f a n t r y and  t a n k s  r u s h e d forward t o w a r d Geilenkirchenins 10 miles from t h e Dutch village of Grjstraat , 10 miles n o r t h of Aachen  a n d splashed across the Little Wurm river coursing near the Dutch-German border in the first 45 minutes of t h e attack.

U.S. Fliers Drop

Millionth Ton of

Bombs on Axis

WASHINGTON. — (U.P) —

The American air forces have dropped1,000,000 tons of bombs on t h e enemy since Pearl Harbor, and almost half that total has been dropped since D-day in Europe l a s t J u n e 6, Gen. H. H. Arnold, Commander of  t h e  AAF,  revealed today.

Bombs composing t h e millionth t o n fell on t h e Ammoniak oil r e finery at Merseberg-Leuna, close to the geographic center of Germany last Thursday, Arnold said. T h i s synthetic oil p l a n t at one

time had a capacity of about 10 per cent of Germany's  e n t i r e  synthetic production.

Arnold revealed that the air forces had dropped 432,000 tons of bombs since D-day.

Five Million Bombs

Arnold promised that t h e second million tons of bombs would be dropped "in only a fraction of the t i m e  r e q u i r e d  for t h e first."

"Dropping 1,ooo,ooo tons means t h a t 5,000,000 individual bombs h a v e plummeted down on German a n d J a p a n e s e t a r g e t s " Arnold said.

" I n recent months the r a t e was 4,400 tons per day or three tons each minute around the clock.

This shows what Germany and J a p a n a r e n ow u p against i n contrast to the first year of w a r for t h e United States, 1942, when the r a t e was 28 tons per d a y ."

He said a r m y planes have flown 1,350,000 sorties since Dec. 7, 1941, a n d 71 p e r cent, or 958,000, of t h e s e sorties took place i n t h e f i r st

nine months of 1944, as compared w i t h 365,000 i n 1943 a n d 27,000 in 1942.

War Bulletins

U. S. First Army Headquarters.—(AP) —

The hard-hitting U. S. Third armored division was the first American outfit to crack a way through the Siegfried line, it was officially announced today. The U. S. Ninth infantry division, first to slice across the Cherbourg peninsula, also was among t he first American units to smash through the Siegfried line.

Supreme Headquarters Allied Force.—(JP)—

The men of Anthem who escaped could not have held out another 24 hours, Maj. Gen. R. E. Urquhart said today. Urquhart came here after about 2,000 of 8,000 men in h i s British airborne division escaped annihilation by pulling across the Rhine.