BRITISH “BEATERS”

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 283, 26 August 1944, Page 7

BRITISH “BEATERS”

(Received August 25, 7 p.m.) LONDON, August 25.

Reuter’s correspondent with the British Second Army on the road to the Seine says: “General Dempsey’s Second Army is moving at a steady 20 miles an hour through the graveyard of von Kluge’s routed panzers to the Seine. It is one enormous convoy, stretching along the roads to the horizon. Field guns, Long Toms, medium and light anti-aircraft guns, staff cars, armoured vehicles, jeeps, Bren-carriers packed with troops, and lorries loaded with rations form the never-ending eastbound procession. “It is an army looking for the enemy, but the enemy is nowhere in sight. I have been looking for the front since 8 a.m., and my gauge records nearly 190 miles. I have travelled by jeep through Gace, Laigle, a dozen devastated villages and far beyond without finding the line or hearing cannon-fire. Field officers and staff officers all tel] the same story: ‘We are not in contact with the enemy. We have lost him.’ “The headquarters personnel know that there are some Germans here and a little party there, that an enemy pocket is giving routine trouble north of Lisieux and a screen of one or two thousand Ger mans has been thrown round Bernay, but apart from the detached nests there is nothing ahead but a few snipers.” The “Daily Mail’s” correspondent, Alexander Clifford, from another Part of the front says: “It is from us, not from the Americans, that the Germans are really retreating. We are beaters driving the enemy on to the Americans’ guns. In this pocket there is most of what escaped from the other pocket. When travelling over the fields and through the villages here you wonder that anything has escaped at all. But it was a big army we were fighting, and quite a bit got away. The Siene ferries are working to capacity and beyond it. “This is the only real German army between us and complete victory in the west.” No Stand on Seine? A senior staff officer at General Dempheadquarters stated that he was confident that the Germans would not attempt to hold the Seine line, says the Exchange Telegraph agency's correspondent in Normandy. The only places where offensive preparations such as digging, were going on were ou the Somme and the Marne. The enemy inside tbe bridgehead was in a chaotic state and his lines of communication were so bad that be could do nothing on this side of the Seine. The officer added that a blanket of silence was temporarily being placed on specific moves along the southern end of the pocket where the Germans were being squeezed against the Seine. British airborne troops operating as infantry with the First Canadian Army yesterday thrust forward to Criqueboeuf, on the estuary of the Seine within sight of Le Havre, stated Reuter’s correspondent. He added that fighting was going on in the suburbs. “The Germans are continuing strong resistance east of Lisieux and holding extensive .strongpoints near the cathedral, which is on high ground commanding all the exits out of the town to the east,” said a supreme headquarters statement last night. “There are at least 150 snipers in and round the cathedral. The Allies so far have avoided shelling the cathedral, but as the Germans have turned it into a military strongpoint we shall probably be forced to take action to dislodge them. Defences Crack. “The envelopment, of the German forces west of the Seine is proceeding satisfactorily, despite increased enemy rearguard activity, extensive minefields, and strongpoints. Much depends on whether the Germans hold their present line, but they are now threatened by the Allied positions behind the louques River. The Germans apparently realize this threat, as after the enemy had launched a counter-attack which pushed the Allies from Pont I’Lvaque, the Allies subsequently found that the town had been evacuated. , . A later headquarters statement said. “The German defence on the Canadian flank along the Touques River line have cracked. The Allies are 11 miles east of Lisieux, and are in and I’.V-Passmg lro«ville. We have liberated , .Lbibervilk, Mon'fargis and Pont I’Eveque.”