Ninth U.S. Army launches surprise assault. Tanks of the Ninth U.S.

Ninth U.S. Army launches surprise assault. Tanks of the Ninth U.S. Army roll past blasted German houses at the start of the great Allied offensive which was launched against the Reich November 16, 1944. The Ninth Army, last heard of in September when it liberated Brost, France, was secretly moved through France, Belgium and Holland to a nine-mile arc inside the German border. In the first two days of the new assault, the army captured 1,80 Nazis in a strike toward the Cologne plain.