PARISIANS HEAR ALLIED GUNS

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 277, 19 August 1944, Page 7

PARISIANS HEAR ALLIED GUNS

Patton’s Tank Triumph

LONDON, August 17.

American armoured columns driving into the interior of France have established a bridgehead over the Eure River, 32 miles from Paris, which cau now hear the thunder of Allied guns. Another column, driving south-east, captured Orleans after only slight resistance.

This news was released this afternoon after the complete black-out on the operations of General Patton’s Third American Army. In the drive toward Paris, Allied troops have occupied Chartres and Dreux, Chateaudun and St. Calais have also been taken. The Maquis deserve the lion’s share of the credit for the capture of Chartres, says the British United Press correspondent with the United States forces. They fought the Germans in the streets from early yesterday morning, pinning them down till American armoured patrols burst into the town. The Germans made a desperate last-minute attempt to reinforce the garrison. Dozens of snipers held out in the spire of the famous cathedral till the French drove them out. Chartres is largely undamaged, but the Germans attempted to dynamite public buildings and public services. On From Chartres.

A late report puts the American spearhead at Auneau, 13 miles beyond Chartres. 'This is the spearhead that is within 35 miles of Paris. Between Orleans and the Seine north of Paris, in the famous Orleans gap, almost all the bridges over the Loire and the Seine have been cut by our aircraft. This gap contains the only uninterrupted communication line for the Germans in. the whole of north-western France. Dominating the western approaches of this gap are the communication centres of Chartres, Dreux and Orleans, and Chateaudun, which is also in American hands. It is announced officially that the Third United States Army has knocked out nearly 100,000 Germans, including 11,000 killed, 41,300 captured and 47,000 wounded. The Twelfth United States Army Group alone took 9754 prisoners during the 48 hours ended at midnight on August 15. It is announced at .the supreme headquarters that three more American divisions are now ghting in France, namely the sixth, and fourth armoured and the Eighth motorized. The War Department has announced that Brigadier-General James Wharton was killed in action in France on August 12. He is the seventh American general to be killed in action since Pearl Harbour.