Others At Loire Mouth Near St Nazaire And Nantes

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24329, 7 August 1944, Page 5

Others At Loire Mouth Near St Nazaire And Nantes

VANNES TAKEN; COLUMN APPROACHING LAVAL (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, August 6. By an amazingly swift advance from end to end of Brittany, American armour has reached the great naval base of Brest. This has been confirmed at Supreme Allied Headquarters. Still other American forces, driving south across the base of the Brittany Peninsula, have reached the sea at the mouth of the Loire, in the area of the city of Nantes and the port of St. Nazaire. The town of Vannes, 35 miles north-west of St. Nazaire, near ' .the southern coast of Brittany, has been captured. On the northern side of Brittany the Germans are still fighting stubbornly eight*miles from St. Malo. ' Another American armoured column is new approaching the town of Laval, 40 miles east of Rennes, which was the starting point of the advance which has reached the Loire estuary. The British 2nd Army has cleared the Germans from a 15-mile stretch of the river Orne below Caen, and one correspondent says that British forces have crossed the river. Below Caen and further south the British are moving steadily towards the river, squeezing out the Germans remaining on its west side.

“American armour, sensationally advancing from Rennes, had by Saturday night reached the river Loire and cut off the whole of Brittany, meaning that the ports of Brest, Lorient, and St. Nazaire are also cut off,” said Reuter’s correspondent at Supreme Headquarters.

“The point where the Loire has been reached has not yet been specified, but it is somewhere south-east of Redon, indicating the area round Nantes. “Two columns are known to be driving towards the river, one along the road from Chateaubriant and the other through Derval. Apparently one of these has broken in. “It is a disaster for the German Army. American tanks covered roughly 40 miles in two days. German resistance throughout was negligible.’’ Reuter’s correspondent with the United States forces says; “It is officially stated that American armoured elements are within the city limits of Brest. “Another American spearhead is across the Mayenne river, two miles south of the town of Mayenne, after a 30-mile advance on Saturday from a point south of Ducey.”

BRITISH ADVANCE TOWARDS ORNE

The Associated Press correspondent with the Americans says: "American infantry cleaned out the Foret de St. Sever and pushed southward toward Champ du Boult. Another column captured St. Pois, five miles north-east of Brecey. The Americans, who are pushing far to the west and south of Vire, threaten to outflank the whole German Army.

“The British on Saturday captured Aunay-sur-Odon (20 miles southwest of Caen) and drove the Germans from all the territory east of Aunay to the Orne river,” says Reuter’s correspondent. “British vanguards have reached Lehom, seven miles south-east of Aunay. "The British advance is going on in all directions. There is no question of a rout, but the Germans are going back on a broad front.”

A British staff officer said: “It was a most satisfactory day. The picture from our point of view is extremely healthy, but from the Germans’ point of view it is critical.” The Official 'German News Agency’s commentator (Guenther Weber) says that the British occupation of Ondefontaine has cut off German armoured divisions.

The “Daily Telegraph’s” correspondent says: “Rennes is now entirely clear of the enemy. The prevailing atmosphere seems to be one of Intense and absolutely sincere friendship. It is absolutely spontaneous and very touching. The town is almost undamaged. The population was to-day en fete in the great central square. “That the Germans were clearly caught by surprise by the speed of the American advance is shown by the fact that they had no time to evacuate a number of prisoners in the town, including 575 British and American wounded.”

Allied Air Group in Balkans.—A new Allied air fleet Jias been formed In the MediterraneanJTt will be known as the Balkan Group. Its chief object will be to assist operations in the Balkans and to intensify air operations in the Adriatic. Air Vice-Mar-shal W. Elliott has been' appointed commander of the group. He has been R.A.F. chief at Gibraltar for five months.—London, August 4.

Withdrawing Germans Leave Many Mines

Export Credit Assistance. —"A Canadian 200.000.000 dollars export credit assistance bill passed this week provides for export credit insurance to help Canadian exporters and special loans, guarantees, or purchases of foreign securities designed for the post-war period, when many countries’ financial resources will be greatly impaired,” says the “Journal of Commerce.” —New York. August 4.

VILLERS BOCAGE OCCUPIED

(Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, Aug. 6. British armour and infantry are rolling eastward across Normandy on a 15-mile front from west of Viilers Bocage towards the river Orne. Not German soldiers, but thousands of mines and booby-traps littering the roads, lanes, and ditches, and even hidden under German dead, are opposing the new drive. The British and Canadian front east of the Orne has been comparatively quiet, with only artillery and mortar exchanges. Evrecy, Esquay, and Hills 112 and 113, which cost the rirwsn hard fighting and bloodshed a few weeks ago, have been recaptured without enemy opposition. The 2nd Army is beyond St. Honorine du Eay and Amay-sur-Orne. The Allies entered Viilers Bocage unopposed by troops, but they found it full of mines. A British sergeant and two privates were killed by a booby-trap when they turned over a dead German to find his papers. Sixteen mines were laid in 10 square yards of road near Viilers Bocage.

Very bitter opposition was encountered at Aunay-sur-Odon (20 miles south-west ot Caen). The 2nd Army is holding Loisonniere. The Germans at Ondefontaine threw out the British after the first occupation, but a second attack ousted the Germans and the village is now firmly held. A staff officer said: “The whole line looks like going forward. The Germans are pulling back in an orderly way. The enormous number of mines and booby-traps slows our progress The Germans are going to leave rearguards to fight delaying actions. 1 think they would fight delaying actions all the way back if they got the chance.”

Reuter’s correspondent on the Canadian front on Saturday morning reported that the Germans had made a five miles deep withdrawal along an eight-mile front south-west of Caen. The Associated Press said: “The German withdrawal from the Odon hnd Orne valley south-west of Caen clearly indicates Rommel’s acknowledgement that he has lost the sixday struggle for the dense woods, ridges, and valleys south of Caumonl as far as Vire.”

“There has been no change along the southern part of the British front,” reported a correspondent in Normandy on Saturday afternoon. “The S.S. division opposing us along this line are giving every indication that they intend to continue to make a hard fight before they have to pull out from the threat of the Americans south of Vire. They are using tanks in .‘penny packets,’ never more than half a dozen at a time. The enemy has not had sufficient help from the east to commit a large force of tanks, but he is using what he has to the best of his ability.

Enemy Salient Destroyed

five and a- half miles long and just over half a mile deep. Our footsloggers have now pushed some distance along this west-to-east strip and have taken a further two heights.” _ One correspondent with the British forces beyond Beny Bocage reports that tanks of a GermSn S.S. division attacked German, panzer troops on Thursday night because the panzers pulled out to avoid the British infantry attack. The story'was told him by a British staff officer, who added that it came from prisoners of war from the divisions concerned, and from French civilians in the area. A German version of the story says that the incident occurred shortly before the British infantry successfully attacked the “sausage” salient. The correspondent adds: “We are now pushing out of Villers Bocage., The Germans who were in the sausage salient are fighting as hard as they can, and are often adopting suicidal tactics. They are using groups of one or three panzers with 30 infantrymen, and exploiting the difficult and dangerous country to the full. They are popping up all over the place. They suddenly pot at you and then sit back. They sit down with their infantry all round them, so it is difficult to winkle them out. You then lay on an attack with guns, but by the time you get up to them they have gone away to bob up somewhere else.” “Tank clashes have been the principal developments between Beny Bocage and Vire,” reported the British United Press correspondent with the British forces on Saturday. The Germans are trying desperately to hold their positions round the Caen hinge, which bars the shortest route to Pans. “The British forces round ,Caen began a small-scale forward movement to-day (Saturday), which was a continuation of their probing attacks against the German positions in preparation for a smash towards Paris. Fifty enemy aeroplanes were shot down in all air operations on Friday and others were destroyed or damaged on the ground. Allied losses were 19 bombers and 22 fighters. The Allied air forces flew about 40,000 sorties.

“North of the Vire line we are still clearing' enemy pockets which are holding out grimly south-east of Beny Bocage and near Montchamp, just over three miles east of Beny Bocage. It was just' north of. Montchamp that our infantry, the night before last and in the early hours of yesterday, began an attack on the sausage-shaped salient holding up our armour moving south. The nose of this menacing line pointed towards Beny Bocage, just over the road from Vire to Villers Bocage. So successful has been the attack that the tables have now been turned.’ From an enemy salient it has now become a useful British salient. This high, wooded ground is

Death of Lord David Douglas-Hamil-ton.—The death on operations is announced of Squadron Leader Lord David Douglas-Hamilton, youngest brother of the Duke of Hamilton, premier peer of Scotland. He was 31. Lord David Douglas-Hamilton commanded the City of Edinburgh squadron, and during the critical days in the Mediterranean he led his squadron from the American aircraft-carrier Wasp to take nart in the defence of Malta. Lord David Douglas-Hamilton married Miss Prunella Stack in October. 1938. There is one son. At the time of her marriage, Miss Stack was leader of the Women’s League for Health and Beauty, and was described as Britain’s “perfect girl.”—London, August 4.