CLOSE TO GERMANY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 56, 4 September 1944, Page 2

CLOSE TO GERMANY

PATROLS OVER THE MOSELLE

Rec. 12.40 p.m. LONDON, Sept. 3, American patrols have crossed the Moselle River, the last big stream west of the German frontier between Metz and Nancy, says Renter's correspondent with the Americans. It is disclosed at General Patton's headquarters that Allied pilots who flew low over the Maginot Line found it apparently in a state of decay, The German High Command evidently is placing reliance on the Siegfried Line. In response to an urgent request from General Patton, ten tons of maps of Germany were dropped to him- by parachute last night. Berlin radio reported that Allied tanks were only ajfew miles from Aachen, a stronghold of the Siegfried Line. The radio also said that Americans were actually inside Holland on the Maas Canal, where Dutch territory juts between Germany and Belgium, The "Daily Express" correspondent with the American Third Army says, "There is nothing now between the Moselle River and Germany except scattered bodies of German troops and the Maginot Line. Spotting planes which reported that the Maginot Line appeared to be abandoned and neglected/flew over at a height of 150 feet. They saw no sign., of life; Aerial reconnaissance indicates -that all the German movements are directed back to the Siegfried Line." The correspondent adds: "The German army fleeing in northern France is a disorganised, broken rabble. 'Back to the Reich' is their slogam. The Germans, do not bear the slightest resemblance to the army of ,1940 which sw£pt through Europe."