December 18, 1944;GERMAN COUNTER OFFENSIVE UNDERWAY:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, DECEMBER 18, 1944:

ABILENE, TEXAS, MONDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 18, 1944—EIGHT PAGES

French - Russian Alliance

Pledges Control of Nazis

By JOSEPH DYNAN

PARIS, Dec. 17—(AP)—

The new French-Russian alliance pledges mutual economic and military assistance for at least 20 years and co-operative steps to bar Germany from any future aggression, it was disclosed tonight.

The text of the historic alliance, released by the Quai D'Orsay, declared the two countries were resolved to collaborate In establishing a world organization for peace, and pledged a common, no-quarter—struggle until final victory over

'Germany.

Article three commits Russia and France to "undertake to adopt all necessary measures

In common accord at the end of the present conflict with Germany

to eliminate any new threat emanating from Germany and to bar the way to any kind of Initiative rendering, possible a new German attempt at aggression."

If such measures, or any German aggression, involves either nation

in hostilities with the Belch, "the other party .will immediately bring It all the aid and assistance in it’s power," the treaty asserted.

Belgium and

Luxembourg

Re-Entered

By EDWARD KENNEDY

PARIS, Monday, Dec. 18—

(AP)—

The German army reinvaded Belgium and Luxembourg in an all-out offensive

yesterday, denting U. S. Firs Army lines with thousands of troops and scores of tanks at tacking on a 60-mile front. This first major counter-offensive since Normandy was gaining in intensity. At some points along a front between Monschau, 16 miles southeast of Aachen, on southward to the German fortress of Trier the enemy had advanced some miles while other thrusts were being held by the Americans.

The depths of the German penetrations were not given. Kennedy reported that some of his dispatches were altered by censorship.

Seizing the initiative for the first time since D-Day, the Germans swept back along the paths of their 1940 conquests, spurred by an order from FieU! marshal Karl Rudolf Gerard Von Rundstedt that -"your hour has struck."

What appeared to be the main blow carried to within 10 miles of the Belgian city of Malmedy, 23 miles south-of Aachen.

4-Mile Penetration

(Malmedy is 14 miles west of the German border and, assumingAmerican lines were at the frontier, that would mean a penetration of four miles. However, Allied lines on that long-quiet sector are illdefined).

War Bulletins

China

CHUNGKING, Dec. 17 — (AP)—

Striking still further down the Kweichow-Kwangsi  r a i l r o a d  to Cwangsi province, counterattacking Chinese forces were less than a mile from Hochih, 95 miles from Liuchow, the high command announced today.

Meanwhile, Chinese units that already had outflanked Hochih captured Wuyu, Japanese strongpoint nine and one-half miles southeast of Hochih.

On the Salween front in Yunnan province, the Chinese continued attacks in the direction of the Burma road town of Wanting on the Chinese- Burmese border. Three strongpoints northeast of Wanting were taken. In the past two days several Japanese counterattacks have been repulsed.

Burma

BHAMO, Northern Burma, Dec.17—(UP)—

American infantry and artillery troops known as the "Mars task force" are now fighting in the North Burma area and advance elements of this unit are closer to

Mandalay than any other allied forces in Burma, it was disclosed today.

The U. S. force is under the command of Brig. Gen. John P. Willey of Hampton, Va., whose wife is from San Antonio, Tex. The first news that American ground troops were fighting alongside the British and Chinese was released after an American unit command by Col. Ernest Easterbrook of  C a r m e 1, Calif., made contact with the Japanese at Tonkwa, 65 road miles south of Bhamo and some 120 miles north of Mandalay. Col. Easterbrook is Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell's son-in-law.

War Bulletins

RAF Hits Ulm

LONDON, Dee. 17— (AP) —

Heavy bombers of the RAF tonight raided Ulm, German industrial and railway center, following daylight American heavy bomber raids on Austria and a tremendous outbreak of air combats over the Western front.

It, was the RAF's first raid on Ulm, which is on the Danube between Stuttgart and Munich. Results were not immediately assessed. Ulm's factories produce tanks, armored vehicles and a large portion of Germany's fire-fighting equipment.

Greece

ATHENS. Dec. 17—

RAF Spitfires and rocket-firing Beauflgh'ters attacked ELAS forces in Athens today after the left-wing troops had opened up with heavy artillery and mortar fire in the city.

The Beaufightcrs attacked the EMS radio station while Spitfires, armed with cannon, attacked an ELAS-controlled locomotive and strafed the stadium area and a concentration of ELAS troops on the northwestern outskirts of Athens.