NEW SLAUGHTER

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 282, 25 August 1944, Page 5

NEW SLAUGHTER

Germans In Seine Trap ELEMENTS OF TWO ARMIES LONDON, August 23. Another great massacre of the routed German, divisions has begun in the 20-mile long “killing ground” between the Rivers RifiJe and Seine, states Reuter’s correspondent on the Britsih front tonight. . He adds: “The Americans lining the west bank of the Seine are behind the Germans and the British guns have already started a drum-beat of death. They face the battered remnants of the German Seventh Army which escaped from the Falaise trap and thousands of Germans who crossed the Seine to help their comrades and walked straight into the trap. “The front is moving at incredible speed. When I went to look for certain headquarters south of Argentan yesterday I found it had moved more than 20 miles. The military police cannot keep up with all the latest locations. We are now driving eastward so fast that there is much cleaning up to bo done in the rear areas. British officers are driving in vehicles still bearing German camouflage. “A feeling of the complete disintegration of the German army hangs over this fluid front. The abandoned German material is inferior. Thick woods behind the front still harbour Germans, but they are being picked up every hour. There is no fight left in them, but between us and the Seine there are many thousands of resisting Germans, and these are being killed ruthlessly.” The British United Press correspondent quotes Maquis reports stating that the Germans are getting men but not material across the Seine in the Rouen area. Allied Positions. The Chambois-Gace salient has been eliminated, and the Allied line now runs from Orbec south to Le Sap and Monnai, and from there eastward to Bugles, about six miles north-east of Laigle. The Canadians yesterday took 6000 prisoners. The Canadians’ total since August 8 is 18,000. The fighting in the former pocket yielded 'between 40,000 and 50,000 prisoners. The number of dead is enormous, and is yet to be counted. Another correspondent says that on both the Canadian and British fronts yesterday the Allies had the best day of the whole Normandy campaign. All along the front we made an average advance of from 10 to 12 miles, and in two cases leaped forward between 16 and 17 miles. The line of the Touques River has now been lost by the enemy. The Canadians biggest advance was a 16-mile trek to take Orbec, and the biggest advance of the day was made by British armour and infantry, which captured Laigle and made the first crossing of the Risle. It is likely that the enemy will make a leap from the River Risle right bank to the Seine. On the cost Deauville has been captured. A “Times” correspondent, referring to the advance against Deauville of British airborne troops operating ns infantry, said that they moved so fast that the guns of a British cruiser supporting them from the sea were soon out of range behind them. This advance toward the Seine estuary is bringing the enemy’s heavy coastal guns at Le Havre within range. The clearing up of the former Falaise pocket resulted in the capture of a German corps commander, Major-General Elfelzt, and his staff. “German dead litter the roads, in the area between Trun and Chambois, and almost every lane has 30 or 40 burntout or abandoned vehicles,” says a British United Press correspondent -from beyond Trun today. “There are a .great .many abandoned guns still in their positions, and also a lot of knacked-out lorries, some with dead drivers still at the wheels.