STRIKING SCENES ALONG FRENCH COAST

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 134, 8 June 1944, Page 5

STRIKING SCENES ALONG FRENCH COAST

AIRMEN'S STORIES "War-Torn Towns In Placid Pastoral Settings Rec. 11 a.m. LONDON, June 7. Pilots returning from forays over the battle area, report that Allied tanks are rolling into the outskirts of a blazing town from which a 1500 ft column of smoke and flames is pouring skyward. The British United Press correspondent at a fighter base says that pilots still reported an almost total absence of the Luftwaffe:

They described extraordinary contrasts along the coast. In one section, from which smoke and flames were rising, tanks and lorries indicate the Allied push, but a few miles away the countryside is peaceful with cows grazing in the/ fields and Frenchmen riding on bicycles. One pilot said: "It's a funny war. You dive down to strafe a moving vehicle and it turns out to be a Frenchman riding to town in a baker's cart."

Another pilot said: "You look one way to see planes towing row after row of gliders. You look the other way and see slim fighters glide past. All you ever see is constant crowds of never-ending Allied planes."

Returning pilots told the Press Association correspondent at a south coast Typhoon station that considerable German movements were observed on the roads toward Lisieux and Caen.

A Chateau—And a Big Stall Car

Typhoons sighted what was obviously a very important staff car, escorted by two tanks and preceded by an armoured car and a dispatch rider. The car's occupants dived for a chateau for safety, but the Typhoons came in low and skipbombed their load into the front door. That was the end of the chateau and everything in it.

The British United Press correspondent at a Marauder base says the towns of St. Lo and Countances, on the Cherbourg Peninsula, were aflame when Marauders flew over to-day. Smoke was still coming up from Baveux.

Mosquito intruders last night shot down five Junkers troop transports which evidently had been brought out after dark to reinforce the German forward areas. German troops so far have been unable to make a single move without observation. When they establish a strong point; word is flashed by radio to fighterbombers which are already waiting "upstairs." They, within minutes and sometimes seconds, unleash A deadly load against the obstruction.

When the Germans try to move fuel and ammunition along the roads, x-ocket-firing Typhoons, strafing Thunderbolts and Mustangs set fire to them.

The Germans in Normandy are being cordoned off from help and from escape, says the Press Association correspondent with the American Air Force. Not only have airborne troops landed behind the German coastal defence zone, but a bombing line has been drawn around the present battle area from coast to coast.

The strategical phase of the air warfare has ended. Berlin will probably experience a lull from bombing because long-range heavy bombers have joined light fighter-bombers in making two or more sorties daily over the battlefield. American headquarters states that 1G Thunderbolts bombed and strafed a German armoured road convoy estimated to contain 75 to 100 vehicles, of which about half were destroyed.