German prisoners captured by U.S. troops near Meuse River.

German prisoners captured by U.S. troops near Meuse River. Two of the German prisoners taken by American troops in stopping the Nazi counter-attack in Belgium, await transport to the rear in a U.S. Army truck. The U.S. War Department announced in Washington December 26, 1944, that 13,273 Germans had been taken prisoner during the first nine days of the enemy counter-offensive launched December 16. Fighting in the biting cold of Belgium and on the snowcovered hills of Luxembourg, American soldiers stopped the Germans December 27 within four miles of the Meuse and approximately 50 miles inside Belgium. Dispatches from Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Forces, reported U.S. troops had retaken the towns of Ciney and Celles, western limits of the German stab into the U.S. lines. Both towns lie about four miles to the east of Dinant, which is on the Meuse.