November 23' 1944; Metz Fortress & Mulhouse Fall:

WAR SUMMARY

PACIFIC FRONT

Foiling another  attempt to land Japanese reinforcements on Leyte American army fighter pilots sank four troop laden freighters four luggers and 14 barges off Ormoc Admiral IMimitz reports 17 Japanese freighters, oilers and luggers sunk 1 and a cruiser crippled in' the Manila area by naval airmen

WESTERN FRONT

The American first army has captured Eschweiler and American and French troops have smashed the last resistance in Metz and Mulhouse Elsewhere Allied

airmen are advancing in face of stiff resistance,  announces the capture of six Hungarian communities as troops close in on Budapest but is silent as to operations elsewhere.

ITALIAN FRONT

Fighting in Italy remains at a minimum as British and Polish troops edge closer to Feanza on the edge of the Po valley.

ZANESVILLE, OHIO, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1944 WEATHER: Snow, Colder

Metz Fortress

And Mulhouse

Also Taken

PARIS Nov 22—UP)—The French fortress cities of Metz and Mulhouse fell today before the victorious sweep of Allied forces in Alsace and Lorraine, and on the bitterly-contested northern front Lt Gen Courtney S Hodges' U S First army captured the Nazi stronghold of Eschweiler, six miles northeast of Aachen on the Cologne plain As the last German pocket in Metz surrendered, other doughboys of Lt Gen George S Patton's Third army who swept past the doomed fortress city days ago smashed to the German Saar frontier at two new points west of Saarbrucken in lightning 10 mile thrusts .

More than 100 miles to the south French armored forces plunging down the Rhine valley behind the Nazis' crumbling Vosges mountain positions seized Mulhouse, an important city of nearly 100000 population (Gen Charles De Gaulle, m a broadcast recorded by the Federal Communications Commission, reported French troops had sped 22 miles beyond Mulhouse to the gates of Colmar, a big road junction 40 miles south of Strasbourg)

At the northern end of the Vosges range, American Seventh army columns punching eastward from captured Sarrebourg were said by the Pans radio to have passed through Saverne, only 19 miles from Strasbourg capital of Alsace Loraine and largest French city still in German hands.

Sweep Down Rhine Valley

As the French and Americans swept down the Rhine valley and poured like acid through the passes of the Vosges they hourly increased the threat of entrapment to an estimated 70 000 German troops remaining on the west bank of the Rhine above Strasbourg. A front dispatch said only three bridges still were standing on the Rhine in the 40-mile stretch So swift was the French armored envelopment of Mulhouse that members of the German 19th army general staff were captured, along with more than 1,000 other prisoners

One of the biggest stumbling blocks in the path of the Allied power drive toward Cologne and the great industrial Rhineland was removed with the crushing of  last ditch Nazi resistance in Eschweiler an important communications center through which house to house fighting hid raged for several days.

Smash Siegfried Line

General Hodges troops opened a final in irresistible smash right through the center of the Siegfried Line town at 3 a m today and by tonight the last enemy opposition had flickered out Eschweiler was almost a total ruin another monument to what will happen to Germany’s towns and cities when they are converted into forts

Jap Troop Ships Sunk

Foe Unable

To Put Men

On Leyte

GENERAL MacARTHUR’S

HEADQUARTERS Philippines,

Thursday Nov 23—(U.P)

American fighter planes hammering at shipping to prevent Japanese reinforcement from reaching Leyte island destroyed or damaged four troop laden freighters off Ormoc, headquarters announced today.

Four luggers and 14 barges also were sunk or heavily damaged during the aerial assaults Tuesday, a communique today reported The air forces are designed to forestall Japanese attempts to reinforce their bitterly resisting forces even on a small scale

The hard fighting American 32^nd division meanwhile maintained its pressure against the Japanese Firstdivision battling around Limon at the northern end of the corridor leading to Ormoc the last Japanese port on the island

Close Vise

No gams of consequence were made by the mud caked weather beaten Americans in the period ending Tuesday But the artillery supported doughboys continued to close their vice around encircled Nipponese forces.

Gen Douglas MacArthur in his communique said shell battered Limon was the north anchor of the Yamashita line where the enemy has elected to make his principal stand in defense of Ormoc corridor

The enemy he added has drawn heavilv on his immediate reserves to bolster this line at Limon

Bitter fighting raged around Limon a mountain village some four miles by road from Cangara bay since American forces headed south toward Ormoc more than two weeks ago.

WAR SUMMARY

PACIFIC FRONT

Foiling another  attempt to land Japanese reinforcements on Leyte American army fighter pilots sank four troop laden freighters four luggers and 14 barges off Ormoc Admiral IMimitz reports 17 Japanese freighters, oilers and luggers sunk 1 and a cruiser crippled in' the Manila area by naval airmen

WESTERN FRONT

The American first army has captured Eschweiler and American and French troops have smashed the last resistance in Metz and Mulhouse Elsewhere Allied

airmen are advancing in face of stiff resistance,  announces the capture of six Hungarian communities as troops close in on Budapest but is silent as to operations elsewhere.

ITALIAN FRONT

Fighting in Italy remains at a minimum as British and Polish troops edge closer to Feanza on the edge of the Po valley.