November 19, 1944; GERMAN RESISTANCE WAVERING:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1944:

Charleston, West Virginia. Sunday Morning:, November 19, 1944

British Smash

German Flank

Above Aachen

Enemy. Defenses Wavering

Under Terrific Impact «

Of Allied Blows ~

(From Wire Dispatches)

PARIS, Nov.:-19.— (Sunday)

   Four Allied armies, -.cascading some half million men onto Germany's home soil," hammered early today at the thresholds of the Ruhr, Rhineland. and

after British 2d army units joined the U. S. 1st and 9th armies beyond Aachen while" the U. S. 3rd army entered. The Reich: below Luxembourg.":

   Five more German towns fell yesterday in thundering. -Allied advances up to two miles across Reich territory, as, other 3d- army tanks and Doughboys slammed: to within ; a few hundred yards. of the heart of Metz after breaking into that- Moselle fortress city from the south and north.

   More than -1,000, American guns and 1,450 Yank dive bombers leveled paths for the " drive on the Aachen-Gellenkirchen " sector to within less than 25, miles of the German Rhine as Berlin said the 1st " and 8th armies : alone were using 1,000 tanks.

   The first : German 'defense- line before the all-important Rhineland  Ruhr ' industrial" basin was giving way 'under the fearful American British pressure and there were indications that the Nazi forces were'. retreating to secondary positions some miles northeast of Aachen and southeast of Wurselen.'

   Meanwhile/ at: the lower end of a blazing 450-mile front— along which, six. Allied armies were . hurling some 1,500.000 troops with perhaps another 1.000.000: poised In the Immediate rear, French 1st army  forces drove' one- third of the way through the historic  Belfort gap corridor to southwest Germany. Outflanking the gateway fortress of Belfort, the French flung" the Germans into a disorganized retreat as they struck; within 28 miles; of the southern Rhine.

German resistance was reported wavering last nightas the "great Allied winter offensive, aimed straight at Berlin, ground forward on all fronts. Although the map above is the latest received. It's Battle lines have been outdated by the Allied advances. On the northern end of the front, the Canadian 1st army continued mop-up operations along the Belgian-Holland frontier. The British 2^nd  launched a major new- Invasion drive into Germany,  hitting the-Hun flank north of Aachen. Roermond, indicated on the map, was reached 'by the 2d army Thursday. Meanwhile the American 1st and 9th, Forming a solid assault arc,. hammered' forward in and "through the "vaunted Siegfried line. The  American 3d stormed into Metz (Indicated on map); and. also-.hurled ..a, new 'armored "prong into Germany out threatened the flank of Nazi forces' resisting the frontal assault.by the American 1st and 9th. On the southern extreme of the flaming front the American 7th continued to slog forward through the Vosage mountains while the French 1st smashed into the strategic Belfort gap gateway to southern Germany.

Yank Infantry

Tightens Trap

On Limon Foes

American Planes Down

7 of 15 Japanese Craft.

In Airdrome Strike*

OEN. MacARTHUR'S HEADQUARTERS,

Philippines, Nov. 19

—(Saturday)—(AP)—

American Infantrymen closed tighter today on the shell-battered fortress town of Llmon, at the northern end of Leyte Island's Ormoc corridor, against stubbornly resisting Japanese who were cut off from fresh supplies.

Yank fighters and anti-aircraft guns, meanwhile, shot down their 500th Japanese plane of the Leyte  campaign, bagging seven of 15 attackers on the east coast.

(A total of 777 Japanese planes have been destroyed by army and carrier-based planes and ack-ack in the Philippines thus far in November, an unofficial count shows.)

Elements of the 24th and 32^nd divisions "further compressed" the Japanese forces at Llmon, four miles by road from Carlgara Bay. today's communique said.

Regiment Trapped

A road block, established south of the town by units at the 24th, was tightened, and "all enemy-attempts to run supply trucks through to the trapped 1st division troops have failed."

Japs Drive to Cut

China's Lifeline

CHUNGKING, Nov. I8.—(AP)-

  The Japanese, led by a skilled general, struck nearly 13 miles closer today to Kweichow province in a drive believed designed to snap the Burma road at Kweiyang and nullify the land supply route the Allies arc fighting to reopen to China.

Competent quarters estimated that Gen. Shunroku Hata had assembled 250.000 troops In south China for this campaign, which threatens to bring .the war to Chungking's front yard and wrest from the American air force its Superfortress bases in western China.

  The Chinese high command announced that the Japanese were within a few miles of Hwalyuanchan,"' 13 miles west of Ishan—captured yesterday—on the railway leading northwest from fallen Liuchow into Kwelchow and Its capital. Kweiyang.

It is at Kweiyang that the Burma road, winding up out of the wilderness in Yunnan province, turns almost due northward to Chungking. 210 miles from Kweiyang.

Chiang Said To Blame

Stilwell for Losses

. WASHINGTON, Nov. 18.—(INS)

—The Army and Navy Journal asserted tonight that prior to the recall of Gen. Joseph W. "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell from command of the China-Burma-India theater. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek accused him of throwing away the lives of 50,000 Chinese soldiers.

  With this statement on the mystery surrounding the Stilwell case, the unofficial service publication also asserted that U. S. Ambassador to-China Clarence E. Gauss was said to have resigned, his post in embarrassment over the presence of so many other American representatives in the Chinese capital and his ignorance of their dealings with Chinese officials.