NOTES ON THE WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 57, 5 September 1944, Page 4

NOTES ON THE WAR

FREEDOM STAKES

ALLIED RACE FOR REICH

Each day ,the news of the Allied advance in the west transcends that of the previous day. France is free except for isolated groups of Germans "pocketed" in the interior or on the Atlantic and Channel coasts, or the few stragglers limping back here and there into Alsace and Lorraine. The race for the Reich is on, and the Allies are moving with the utmost speed to get to the Rhine first. They are already across Belgium at several points and have entered Holland at Breda, north of Antwerp, and at Maastricht, on the eastern side. In Italy the Eighth Army is virtually through the Gothic Line, with only Rimini, the last strong-point, to pass before debouching on the plain of Lombardy. The Russians are advancing into Transylvania, taking the Carpathians in the rear. How many Germans are left in i France? The "Daily Express" military writer, quoted in yesterday's "Post," says that the Allies have "sealed off the entrances to the Reich from western Europe, and prevented the escape of, perhaps, 350,000 combatant troops, and a great many more auxiliary troops." The number seems large, but may be correct. It was commonly accepted that the Germans had 50 to 52 divisions in France and the Low Countries on D Day. In the long Normandy battle and the subsequent operations on the lower Seine, at least half of . these were officially stated to have been "liquidated," by surrender or destruction. This would represent a total of about 250,000. Enemy losses in the Riviera and Rhone Valley campaigns have been much smaller, but may by this time have reached 50,000. This would leave out of the original 50-52 divisions, roughly about 200,000 men. Since D Day reinforcements may have been sent to France from other fronts or occupied countries, like Norway and Denmark. Possibly, some came from the Russian front. If all these are put at four divisions, say, 50,000 men, the total left w3 sL^ )f the Rhine would then reach <450,000. i ■ ■ Where Are the Germans? Where are the Germans still in France? "Liberator," in the "Observer," . suggests that "four or five di vi Sl2 ns are bottled up in the ports of Brittany, six to seven are struggling to escape from the Rhone Valley and 0 ten are immobilised on the Atlantic Wall." " With a division reckoned at 12,000, these twenty divisions of "Liberator's" estimate would number 240,000. Probably, with the wear and tear of an army battered, beleaguered, and in retreat, the number would be considerably less and diminishing daily. The "pockets of resistance" appear to be these: (1) The

■■■iiimmtiiiiuiiiiHiiiiiimiiimimmiiiHiimiiiiiiiimiiiiiimi garrisons defending Brest, Lorient and, perhaps still, St. Nazaire and La Rochelle, ports on the Bay of Biscay; (2) the "flying bomb" guard divisions in the Pas de Calais, opposing the Cana<iians north of the Somme and south of Antwerp; and (3) a group between the British and American thrusts on each side of Paris through to Belgium and the Dutch frontier, where the Rhine flows through to the sea. Betreat to Mons. Very little has appeared in the news about this last group, which may still be in fair strength. This is what is left of a German force which, when the Americans entered Paris and passed through the capital and through Meaux, on the Marne to the east, and when the bridgehead on the Seine below Paris lay between Mantes and Vernon, held on in the loops of the! Seine between Paris and the' confluence of the Oise with the Seine near Pontoise. As the British began their lightning drive northward through Beauvais and Amiens, and the Americans, moving in parallel, advanced through Reims, Soissons, and Laon towards Sedan and the Ardennes, this German force retreated up the valley of the Oise, retracing-in reverse the path of the British retreat from. Mons in August, 1914. They fought a stiff rearguard action at Compiegne, where the Aisne joins the Oise. T&ey must have passed up the Oise via St. Quentin, between Amiens and Laon, and then, probably diminishing in numbers, through Guise, La Cateau, and Landrecies, battlefields of 1914, until they are now reported at Mons, of celebrated memory, where, according to the news today, "all round the city heavy German forces are endeavouring to break out eastward," but "Mons has been pinched off by American armour and is ours." ■ . ■ Isolated "Pockets." This seems to be the only organised attempt at the moment to break the Allied screen and escape to the Rhine. The large force in the Pas de Calais, with its ports of Boulogne, Calais, and Dunkirk, is completely cut off by the British occupation of Antwerp, but this may not be known to the Germans, who are reported to be "trekking" out of Boulogne with a large convoy of horse transport, a nice target for the Allied air force, duly exploited, with results like those of the bombing of the Turkish retreat from the Jordan in September, 1918. From Central France. Is there any chance of the Germans getting out of France? Very little, except in small parties, moving largely by night or under cover of woods. The Allied screen may be thin in places, but there is always air reconnaissance and swift notification of suspicious movements, apart from direct action by aircraft themselves. For German survivors in central France, in the area of the Upper Loire between Orleans and Le Creuzot, and along the Saone there may be still some small.chance of escape through the Belfort Gap and its vicinity. General Patch's advance columns have passed Lyons and reached Bourg, between Maqon and Geneva, but they are still over 100 miles from Besancon on the direct road to the Belfort Gap along the Doubs Valley with its Rhine Canal. Whe*-e General Patton's flying columns are in this direction is obscure, but no place where they were last reported is nearer than about 100 miles from Besancon and Belfort. The nearest approach would seem to be.from Nancy via Luneville and Epinal, along the old fortified line of 1914 days. But this area has purposely been shrouded in the Vfog of war.? ' r ; ■:■■-;/