NEWS SENSATIONAL IF TRUE

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

NEWS SENSATIONAL IF TRUE

Chartres-Dreux Operation

LONDON, August 16. If the German report of battles at Chartres and Dreux is correct, the Allies have. jumped forward 55 miles, says the British United Press, which describes the German statement as “the most sensational admission of the war.”

Berlin radio, giving details of the thrust toward Paris, said : “Enemy formations concentrated at Le Mans first drove northward, beyond Alencon, and then, after bringing up fresh formations of Americans during the past few days, pressed on into the areas of Nogent-le-Rotrou and La Loupe, respectively 75 and 60 miles west of Paris. From here they drove along roads leading to Chartres from north-west and south, pushing forward armoured reconnaissance columns. German defence formations engaged the enemy in bitter fighting, particularly north of Chartres, and destroyed many American tanks. Fighting is now in full swing there on a broad front.”

The British United Press says: “If the German report is true it means that we have forces of some strength on the flank of the mauled remainder of the German forces which escaped from the Fal-aise-Argentan pocket. Any pressure northward from the.Chartres-Dreux area would force the retreating Germans against the Seine at a' point where it is least passable, and might result in the extermination of the.whole of the German forces west of the river. No whisper of this move has come from any other sources. Tile news, if true, completely changes the whole picture of northern France.” The Allied supreme headquarters has made no comment on the German report.