EVE OF GREATER SUCCESS

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 260, 31 July 1944, Page 5

EVE OF GREATER SUCCESS

Tempered Optimism (Received July 30, 7 p.m.) NEW YORK, July 29. Competent military observers look on the current lighting in Normandy as the real battle of Erance, because it is believed that an Allied advance from the confines of the peninsula would widen the battle lines beyond Germany’s ability to plug the holes, states the Washington correspondent of the United Press of America. One expert said that Allied success would so strain the defence pattern in western Europe that victory would possibly come with very startling speed, in contrast to the sluggishness of the campaign in France so far. A widened battlefront should leave the Germans open to stiff punches, if not knock-out blows, in three areas: first, the area of France now threatened by the Allied successes; secondly, Italy, where the Germans already have too few divisions to do more than delay the Allied advance; thirdly, along the invasion coasts of Europe, specially the Pas de Calais area, from which the Germans, would have to shuttle troops to lhe main front, risking being unprepared for a new Allied invasion. However, the optimistic aspects or the new successes in Normandy are tempered by the knowledge that Germany still has two or three armies in France, apparently determined to fight with a minimum of retreat deeper into Europe. The German resistance has risen in ferocity steadily since D-day, and this is considered confirmation of the belief that the German high command has abandoned a strategy of falling back and picking its own battleground. The unprecedented proportion of elite S.S. troops in France is also significant, they comprise 30 per cent, of the total German, forces in Normandy. HELD BY~BRITISH Main Weight Of Panzers LONDON, July 28. It was stated at. the Allied supreme headquarters that it is now known there are about 25 German divisions in Normandy, divided approximately equally against the American and. British sectors, but the preponderant weight is still engaged by the British and the Canadians, who are pinning down six of the eight high-class panzer and S.S. divisions in Normandy. . . . , A high-ranking American tank othcer told correspondents that German tanks are more adaptable to fighting in the thick wooded country than the Allied tanks, which are designed for highly mobile fighting, and therefore the Americans are using infantry to open the gale for tanks. A broad mobile tank battle should be possible after the Allied front emerges from wooded country. • The .Stockholm correspondent .of the Associated Press of Great Britain, says the Germans estimate that the Allies in France total 50 divisions and between 3000 and 4000 tanks. ROMMEL ACCIDENT General Rumoured Dead (Received July 30. <B.lO p.m.) LONDON, July 29. A German officer taken prisoner by the Americans said Hint Koinmcl was wounded while at the front, reports Reuter's correspondent with the United Stales forces. A car removing him from the front overturned. Rommel was left unconscious on the roadside for six hours and then was taken to hospital. The Associated Press correspondent says that a Frenchwoman in lhe Red Cross reported that Rommel was wounded during Allied bombing near Falaise and died later in hospital. It was earlier reported that Rommel on Wednesday visited his sagging left front at Percy and conferred with, the commander of the Lahr Panzer Division, which has since been almost completely destroyed.