BLOCKING ENEMY

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 276, 18 August 1944, Page 5

BLOCKING ENEMY

Airborne Troops In South France LONDON, August 16. The Allies are now firmly established on the coast of southern France between Cannes and Toulon. All the initial objectives have been taken, and some penetrations inland are as deep as eight miles, says an official announcement from Allied headquarters in Italy. Airborne British and American troops have successfully blocked enemy reinforcements. Fighting continued throughout last night. . The bulk of our leading infantry divisions are already ashore. Prisoners up to midnight on Tuesday totalled nearly 700. German air opposition is still negligible. . A correspondent >names St. Maxime as one of the landing places. This is a small railway town 24 miles south-west of Cannes.' Allied bombs and shells had knocked out all German pillboxes, strongpoints and gun positions at St. Maxime. Quoting French frontier reports, La Suisse" says that the Allies have occupied Nice and Cannes, and that French advance guards are on the way to Ventimiglia, the Italian border town. “To Cut off Marseilles.” Advance Allied columns in southern France have reached points 20 miles inland and have already taken prisoner 2000 Germans, according to Algiers radio. The radio added that the Allies firmly hold three beach-heads between Marseilles and Nice, while Cannes and the small neighbouring village of Croix des Gardes have been liberated. The British United Press correspondent in Madrid, quoting Vichy reports, says the Allies have begun a great drive to cut off Marseilles. Armoured cars are already striking along the roads leading to Aix and Salon. “The Allied line of attack now stretches along about 125 miles of the Riviera coast,” says the German news agency’s commentator, Sertorius. “Airborne formations landed yesterday between Cannes and Nice and the enemy has since 'been reinforced from the sea. Beach-heads have been established in Hyeres Bay, at Cap de St, Tropez, and at St. Raphael. “As in the landing in Normandy, it was the Allies’ strong air and naval superiority tlUit enabled them to obtain a foothold.”

Berlin radio said this afternoon that Allied troops had been reported 10 miles inland on the St. Raphael-Toulon railway The Germans had blown up the harbour works at Nice, Cannes, and St, Tropez. The German news agency tonight listed five 1 bridgeheads which it said the Allies hold along a stretch of between •35 and 40 miles on the Riviera coast. The first was said to be between Cannes and St. Raphael, the second west of St. Raphael, the third at St. Maxime, 10 miles south-west of St. Raphael, the fourth at Ca'alaire, nine miles southwest of St. Tsopez, and the fifth at Le Lavandou, eight miles south-west of Cavalaire and 23 miles east of Toulon. Complete Air Mastery.

The Allied air forces have complete mastery of the sky over the invasion beaches and over an area 30 to 50 miles inland, says Reuter’s correspondent at the Allied headquarters in Italy. The Luftwaffe opposition has been almost non-existent. Allied heavy bombers today attacked railways and bridges on the vital supply routes behind the frout, including two across the Iser River to Grenoble and St. Pierre d’Abigny. All east-west traffic across the Rhone northwest of Marseilles is blocked as a result of direct hits on the road bridge at Arles.

Allied fighters are going inland to start on their familiar role of strangling the German supply lines.