Sunday, November 11, 2012

November 11, 1944; ARMISTICE DAY; Fighting Continues

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1944:

(ET's Note:  See map to be posted November 12 which shows battle lines on Nov. 11, 1918 and 
November 11, 1918.)




Daily Newspaper of U.S. Armed Forces
London Edition Paris
in the European Theater of Operations
SATURDAY Nov. II, 1944

Repel Stabs
Nazis; 2
Towns Fall
Scoring fresh gains up to three miles in four sectors, Lt. Gen. George S. Pation's Third Army yesterday captured the ; 12,000-foot-high Delme Ridge and, the towns of Chateau Salins and Louvigny and threw back two enemy counter-attacks north of Metz, apparent goal of the new American offensive.
Front-line 'dispatches identified four more divisions in action—the 18th and 95th Infantry and .the Fourth and Sixth Armored Doughboys of the 18th
took Delme Ridge, n6rth of the road hub of Chateau Salins, while the Fourth's tanks rumbled on three miles beyond Delme, striking toward the Metz-Saarbruecken highway.
Units of the 26th Infantry were close to Hampont, northeast of Chateau Salins, after moving ahead three miles. Enemy resistance was stiffer on the northern part qf the new front, about 20 miles above M'etz, where troops of the 10th Infantry deepened their bridgehead across the Moselle and beat off tank and
infantry thrusts, in the Koenigsmacher area.
Closer to Mejtz, the town of Louvigny, nine miles from the fortress city, was captured and an enemy resistance pocket. holding a  rail crossing near, by was
Overcome’
Prisoners taken, so far total 1,514.
Trap Developing
Dispatches spoke of a great trap beginning to take shape in the Metz area, with one spearhead thrusting up from the south and the other pushing down
from the Thionville area, north of Metz.
The tips of the: spearheads were said to be about 30 miles apart.

Casualties
And Damage
Not Heavy'
Prime Minister Winston Churchill admitted to the House of Commons yesterday that the Germans were firing rockets against England and that some of them had fallen and caused casualties and damage.
His was the first official Allied announcement of the Nazi V-2, which the Germans had announced in a communique Wednesday.
Shortly after Churchill's announced German News Agency circulated a Wilhelmstrasse- statement that rockets  had been used for several weeks againnst Paris and Antwerp, where "heavy damage has been inflicted on the town and harbor installations."
Admitting that rockets had been coming over for the last few weeks, Churchill explained that official silence about them had been maintained to avoid giving "information useful to the enemy.
Casualties Not Heavy
"A number have landed at widely scattered points in this country," he said, “in all, casualties and damage have so far not been heavy. " The rocket," as he described it, "contains approximately the same quantity of high explosive' as the flying bomb. However, it is designed to penetrate more deeply. This results in some heavier damage in the immediate locality, but rather less extensive blast.' "The rocket flies through the stratosphere, going up to 60 or 70 miles, and
outstrips sound because of its high speed. Because of this no reliable warning can be given,
There is, however, no need to exaggerate the damage. The scale and, the effects of the attack have not hitherto not been significant."
Rocket Areas Overrun
Some rockets had been fired from Walcheren, Churchill said, but this island now in Allied hands, "and other areas from which rockets have been or can be
fired will doubtless be overrun by our forces in due course.
"The use of this weapon, Churchill declared, "is another attempt by the enemy to attack the morale of our civilian population in the vain hope that he may
by this means stave off the defeat which faces him in the field."|
United Press quoted a Berlin radio commentator yesterday, saying that "V-2 itself could never decide the war in Germany's favor." But V-2, he said, was
by, no means the last secret weapon we have in store for Londoners and the people in southern England."


Forli Seized
By 8th Army
ALLIED MEDITERRANEAN HQ,
Nov. 10—
Eighth Army troops, winding up a three-day pincers drive from south and cast, have captured the cathedral city of.Forli and reached the damaged main bridge over the Montone River, the west bank of which is still held by the Germans, it was announced today.
Polish troops crossed the Rabbi River

south of Forli, and reached the Montone at another point. The Montone, which is west of the town, now forms the front line in the battle for control of the Po
Valley.
Forli, which has a population of 60,000, is an important communications center, with good highways radiating toward Bologna, to the northwest, and Ravenna, to the northeast


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