SWIFT STROKE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 57, 5 September 1944, Page 5

SWIFT STROKE

CAPTURE OF BRUSSELS

SIXTY-MILE ADVANCE (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) LONDON, September 4. British troops, accompanied by Belgian units entered Brussels, the capital of Belgium, yesterday afternoon, and pushed on to within 25 miles of the Dutch border. Today's Allied 4 communique says that forces which crossed the Belgian border yesterday morning and rapidly freed Tournai (east of Lille) swept on and entered Brussels in the late afternoon after an advance of 60 miles. Correspondents report that the British j forces along the route of the advance | were cheered by excited crowds. Mohs has been pinched off by American armour and is ours, but all round the city heavy German forces are furiously endeavouring to break out eastward, says an Associated Press correspondent. Tanks reached Mons on Saturday night after advancing 130 miles from the Marne within six days. An American column was. last night unofficially reported to be north-east of Liege in the vicinity of the Dutch town of Maastricht. Other Americans were last reported to be approaching the Reich border south-east of Luxemburg. < Our*" bombers are striking ahead of the ground forces; yesterday heavy planes pounded six of the German airfields in Holland. The Channel port of Abbeville is in our hands, with the Somme crossed on both sides of the town. Boulogne and Calais are now threatened by the Canadians. Algiers radio quotes reports that Metz and Nancy, near the Franco-Ger-man frontier, have been captured. The F.F.I. radio at Toulouse says that Lille has been liberated. The F.F.I, radio later quoted reports that Dunkirk, Boulogne, Calais, and Le Touquet have been liberated. "The Allied advances towards Holland and Germany continue inexorably, with the liberated areas in France and Belgium growing larger every hour," states a report from the Allied Supreme Headquarters. The most southerly advance eastward has .reached a point 60 miles from Germany, and the thrust further north from Verdun has reached Etain, only 30 miles from the German border, where it joins Luxemburg. Today's Allied communique states: "Allied troops who crossed the Belgian frontier early yesterday morning rapidly freed Tournai and pushed on to the north and east to enter the capital late in the evening. Other armoured forces further west drove north through Bethune and Lillers and reached the neighbourhood of the Aire. "We crossed the Somme River in the Abbeville area on both sides of the town, which is**tow in our hands, after some fighting. Our troops pushed on northward from the river. North and east of Le Havre we closed in on the port's main defences. Other columns advancing north-east crossed the Belgian frontier some 40 miles south-west of Brussels." American and French forces from southern France are now far beyond Lyons, third largest city of France, which the Germans have abandoned. American troops are 40 miles past Lyons, having moved out of the Rhone Valley, and they now threaten to cut the Germans* escape route. The Germans yesterday made a sharp counterattack in this area.