SOUTH FRANCE NOW A NAZI LIABILITY

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

SOUTH FRANCE NOW A NAZI LIABILITY

Long Withdrawal Prospect (By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Special Correspondent.) (Received August 18, 8 p.m.)

DONDOiN, August 18. “The events in Normandy now tend to bear out the suggestion that to the German High Command the four-fifths of France lying south-west of the Seine is now a liability rather than nn asset, and that as a consequence we might expect a general withdrawal to the line of the Seine in the near future,” says the “Daily Telegraph’s” . correspondent, Lieutenant-General Martin. He adds: “The only hope for the remnants of the German Seventh Army is to withdraw over the Seine through the fresh troops of the 15th Army which are ready to receive them. Thus the end of the battle of Normandy is likely to see the battered remnant of the Seventh Army united with the rather second-rate 15th Army on the right bank of the Seine between Paris and the sea.” _ _ General Martin expresses the opinion that General Blaskowitz’s Biscay and Mediterranean armies are confronted with a situation which had got out of hand even before the Allies landed in Provence. They were both so dangerously weakened to reinforce the Seventh Army that the-French Forces of the Interior had gained control of great tracts of country. "Now that the Allies have landed m the south the position of these armies is critical. If they stay to fight they will assuredly find themselves immobilized by a universal revolt and- mopped up piecemeal. Their only chance is to withdraw. If Blaskowitz’s armies could' join Rommel’s armies farther west they might once more present some _ sort of coordina'ted front to the Allies. Direction of Advance.

“I believe, therefore, that the Allied advance from the south will meet with little opposition in its earlier stages,” the ■writer says. “It is almost inevitable that the advance seems destined to take the line of the Rhone and _ Saone toward Dijon. Indeed, the Allied army of the south on its advance to join hands with the army of Normandy could scarcely find a more suitable rendezvous than Dijon, the strategic road centre of Burgundy. “Concentrated in that area, it would not only confront the Belfort gap, which leads to the upper Rhine, but would also be well placed to turn from the southeast the great water obstacles of northern France and Belgium—the Seine, Marne and Meuse. Dijon, therefore, is almost certain to figure in the future plans of both combatants.”