FRESH VICTORY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 57, 5 September 1944, Page 6

FRESH VICTORY

Large German Force Trapped

BIG BRITISH BOUND

i P' m* LONDON, September 5. The capture of Antwerp has completed the encirclement of the Germans in .the Pas de Calais, says SHAEP. Deep secrecy continues to cover the present moves of General Patton's Third United States Army which, two days ago was reported to be within artillery range of Germany's Rhineland frontier. Two great battles of destruction are going on on the Western Front, says the "Daily Express." The British forged the last link in the chain, of encirclement around one large body of Germans when they, drove 27 miles north from Brussels to Antwerp. . . It is estimated that there may be over 100,000 Germans between the Somme and the Scheldt which flows into the sea at Antwerp. T!he Germans, who have been overtaken and overwhelmed by the American First Army were those who have been retreating' from the Compiegne-St. Quentin area south of Cambrai. Explosions heard from France all day today indicate that the .Germans are carrying out demolitions around Calais. A heavy pall of black smoke could be seen over the French cliffs stretching from south of Calais some. distance northward and covering from seven to eight miles. The smoke hung heavily, suggesting that oil had been set on fire. ' .

The British Second Army, which has begun the liberation of Holland, has driven forward 210 miles in six days. ■ A war correspondent has given some Wmost unbelievable figures as to Gersnan strength. He mentions one GerSft^n T 1310 "' which normally was W.OOO strong, as now being 800 strong, end says that another division was down to a strength of 10 officers and »40 men. l : ..Another gigantic trap is being' prepared, and the enemy forces in the coastal area of the- Pas de Calais and Flanders have had their bolt holes stoppad up. United Kingdom troops are operating all the way from the Somme to Ihe Scheldt, and the -^S"l^ a! re mo ™S •up from the south. Boulogne and Calais are now jn greater danger than ever. Though there is no official news yet of, the capture of these places, or of Dunkirk, says the Exchange Telegraphs correspondent at SHAEF, it is now clear that the Allied strategy was to isolate these ports in a direct run through to Antwerp. , Just before midnight German bat-

teries opened up from the Calais area, and British guns answered. The American Third Army is on the approaches to Germany, and correspondents report that General Patton's 1 forces have driven the Germans into the hills of Lorraine between Metz and Nancy. They are known to have covered 120 miles in seven days before the veil fell upon them, and the correspondent adds: "Heaven knows how far they have, got now." Brussels went mad: with joy when the ■ first British units entered, says the British United Press correspondent. The people hung out Allied flags which they had kept for years as the last Germans left the city They climbed over Allied tanks, decorating 'them with flowers and flags • The British thrust forward .suddenly m a. 70-mile drive from the frontier to Brussels. As the forward units approached each town or village the meirof the resistance movement came out to meet them. __ The Germans, before leaving Brussels, blew up the central.telephone exchange, and burned the Palais de Justice, where the Gestapo kept its records. they did little to cnange the appearance of the city