WEATHER IN CHANNEL

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24280, 10 June 1944, Page 5

WEATHER IN CHANNEL

Armies’ Supply Difficulties REPLACING LOST MATERIAL (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 6 p.m.) LONDON, June 8. The weather in the Straits of Dover, after improving in the preceding 24 hours, changed before nightfall on Thursday, when heavy clouds blew up from the southwest, bringing rain. The seas moderated, but visibility deteriorated owing to lowering cloudbanks. At times, on Thursday, the weather was so bad that unloading over the beaches had to be stopped. However, the superhuman efforts of the crews of the landing vessels, and the efforts of the troops, have made up a great deal of leeway. A later report said that the weather was definitely improving over the beachhead area.

‘‘Tanks, trucks, bulldozers, medical supplies, ammunition, and communications equipment are now coming in to replace the tons of material lost,” said a representative of the Combined Press. "The evacuation of the wounded, which was going on only fitfully on Wednesday, is now being stepped up, but there are dozens of men hit on Wednesday and early on Thursday, still awaiting their turn in the outgoing craft. Dead still lie much as they fell, since there has been no time for burial parties to go out. “Walking not more than threequarters of a mile along the shore 1 saw three burning tank-landing craft, half-a-dozen more sunk offshore, one infantry landing-craft burning, an-

they are intended to rip the bottoms out of the craft. In addition, they had explosives attached to the protruding end, which went up on contact. Cnarge Over Open Beach "Soon the beach was swarming with our chaps. My party worked along the base of the wall and then charged over the open beach. There was a sloping wall on the left which led up to the top of a road where the wall petered out. We fought our way up and got into wooded ground which was full of Germans. “The wood was criss-crossed with low stone walls, and snipers behind these let us have it. Among the woods there were also trenches, which the enemy defended strongly. We drove them out with tommy-guns and rifles, but the men behind the walls, were causing a lot of trouble and casualties. A grenade lobbed over and exploded at my feel, I got the charge smack in the head and was out of the battle." Enemy snipers and mortar fire were the most serious forms of opposition encountered by the first troops to hit the beaches in France, according to other wounded men. Otherwise the enemy reaction was far less than the soldiers expected, particularly from the German artillery. Activity of Snipers

“All the wounded I talked With agreed that the German snipers were on their toes,” writes one reporter. “One English corporal who went in with the first wave walked about 50 yards along the beach when he felt something, go through his helmet. It was a sniper’s bullet. He got another 70 yards up the beach before a mortar put him temporarily out of action. The corporal said: ‘We were detailed to take a small village and a German 38 mm. gun. I got about 120 yards up the beach, but I could not get any further on account of snipers and mortar fire.’ ’’ Other reports say that young Germans who came out from by-passed dugouts surrendered quickly. They were impressed with the service of gathering British wounded who had fallen under shellfire. One batch of prisoners was stunned by the ferocious Allied preliminary bombardment. They said that a daylight landing was not expected, and that they had been told to expect the Allies on the first night after the weather abated. SPEARHEADS OF INVASION TWO NOTED DIVISIONS (Rec, 6 p.m.) LONDON, June 8. The United States Ist Infantry Division and the British 15th Northumbrian Division were the spearheads of the invasion of France, says the 21st Army Group Headquarters. Both divisions, which won fame in North Africa and Sicily, are reported to have made excellent progress after landing on the beaches of Normandy. NURSES IN INVASION AREA LONDON. June 8. Doctors who arrived shortly after the first invasion troops are doing a magnificent job at the northern Franc? beachhead, says a Combined Press correspondent, One doctor was killed on the beach and another was seriously injured. Nurses are already in the invasion battle area. They a'e working in casualty clearing stations in the forward areas as well as at the base hospitals in the coastal strip. The wounded are being sent back to England as soon as they can be shipped or flown. A fleet of air ambulances is working a ferry service, and purses go with the wounded on the cross-Channel journey,