DEFINITE CLIMAX

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 40, 16 August 1944, Page 5

DEFINITE CLIMAX

PHASE OF ALLIED PLAN

STATEMENT BY EISENHOWER (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.1) Rec. 11.20 a.m. LONDON, August 15. "This week will mark a very definite climax in one phase of the operational plan that has been in effect since D_ Day," said General Eisenhower in a statement issued at an advanced command post in Normandy today.

"Just what will result in the sum total no one can say, but it is certain that the German forces concentrated on our front are taking a good sound beating. However, even if we realise our fondest hopes in a situation such as this, we are still a long way from the Rhine."

General Eisenhower said that his Order of the Day issued yestorday was intended to impress on the Allied troops the fact that they had a great opportunity now to take advantage of Hitler's mistake in trying to hold on to the area south of Caen too long. General Eisenhower cited the stern German resistance against the Canadian push towards Falaise as a damper on too much optimism. Regarding an early end to the war, he said: "If the Germans knew they were beaten they wouldn't be fighting so desperately. The whole German nation lies in the grasp of a group which has nothing to lose if it fights to the last man. Good weather is giving the Allied air forces value it is impossible to over-estimate. The Germans admit that they are short of equipment, transport, and sometimes munitions, and are fighting under conditions less favourable than when the invasion began. "There is a real battle out there. However, the enemy is attempting to pull back, and our air forces are having a field day, but they cannot destroy the enemy as completely as the men on the ground can." General Eisenhower said that the German man-power situation was so serious that the enemy was unable to fill the gaps in the ranks and unable to provide reserves for the three fronts against victorious armies without pulling in troops from some areas which sooner or later he must be reconciled to abandoning. "Even Hitler may finally learn," he said in conclusion.