STEAM-ROLLER TACTICS

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 254, 24 July 1944, Page 5

STEAM-ROLLER TACTICS

Enemy’s Skilful Counter (By Telegraph.—Xtaess Assn. —C’opjrlisnc.) LONDON, July 21. “The battle south of Caen seems to have solidified and halted,” says the “Daily Mail’s” correspondent ou the Caen front. “On Tuesday it looked a very big thing indeed—an irresistible steam-roll-er of tanks preceded by a colossal creeping barrage of bombs aud shells, but it went so far and no further. All of the real advance happened in the first fow hours. Since then the ■ process has been one of tidying up, snatching a couple more villages here and abandoning one there, and dominating this road and seizing that bit of high ground. We have indeed got on to a wide rolling plain southeast of Caei), which is an excellent tank battlefield, but we have not exploited our initial crack through. “The new offensive so far has followed the pattern of every other attack we have made in Normandy—first an . immense barrage, then a successful initial advance, then a hold-up through suddenly stiffening resistance, then a temporary switch-over while the Germans counterattacks. They are getting to know our methods now. They realize that we never attack without tremendous artillery preparation, so they tend to keep their front line weak in order to reduce casualties from the barrage. Therefore the initial stages of our attacks usually go fast and well. We cut through the German front line, which is dazed with shelling, and then come up against: the main forces, whereupon we fold hack behind the anti-tank screen and knock out their tanks. "It is cheap for us because we have dictated the direction both of our own attack and their counter-attack, aud have everything ready to receive them, but Tuesday’s great attack looked. at first as though it was going to be different. The initial momentum, however, was not carried through. The colossal bombing preparations undoubtedly were a success, and probably the dose was . tar stronger than was necessary to break the spirit of the not very good German infantry divisions. It is possible that even better success might have been achieved by a longer and more diluted . creeping barrage covering more ground.”