WHATEVER THE COST

Evening Star, Issue 25224, 11 July 1944, Page 5

WHATEVER THE COST

ROMMEL WILL STAND IN NORMANDY ! ALLIED BREAKTHROUGH MAY TAKE TIME (Roc. 12.40 p.m.) LONDON, July 10. Rommel has decided to fight it out on the Normandy line, even if it costs him the Battle of France, says the British United Press correspondent at Supreme Headquarters. He is throwing in reserves which he has been shepherding for weeks in an effort to prevent a great Allied breakthrough, but the Allies slowly but irresistibly are pushing ahead. A breakthrough may be a considerable distance away, but the flower of the German armies in the west is being crushed in a battle of attrition. The Germans made a great decision in -trying to contain the Allies in the bridgehead. There is nothing to indicate that they have a well-prepared defensive line anywhere behind the present line, although undoubtedly scores of villages have been turned into strongpoints. The Associated Press correspondent with the Americans says the Germans have 10 or 12 divisions or_ what remains of some battered units ranged against the Americans, whose drive followed one of the greatest artillery barrages of- the invasion. Guns thundered all night. The indications are that the Germans are on the win south of La Haye du Piuits to the next defences, probably just south of Lessay, where the estuary and marshes form a bottleneck. Troops south of Carentan made a sixmile advance in the last 24 hours. The Germans, in giviug ground in the Caen area, have done so in an orderly manner, and no credence can be given reports of disorganisation or any

large-scale disengagement, but a satisfactory feature of the recent fighting is that the Germans have to recommit reserves temporarily withdrawn from the battle area for reorganisation or refit.

It is revealed at Allied headquarters that one of the Allies' new weapons in Normandy is a long-range gun, with a range so great that an ordinary slowspeed observation plane is inadequate for spotting where the shells fall. Fighters have to bo used for spotting.