CHERBOURG UNDER FIRE

Grey River Argus, 21 June 1944, Page 5

CHERBOURG UNDER FIRE

AMERICAN ADVANCE ON PENINSULA

CAPTURE OF MORE LOCALITIES

Enemy Driven from Tilly-Sur-Seulles

[Aust. & N.Z. Press Assn.l (Rec 11.36) LONDON, June 20. . To-day’s first SHAEF communique says: Co-ordinated attacks all along the north front in the cher ~ bourg Peninsula have , brought the port under artillery fire. The Allies, after liberating Bricquebec, further advanced towards the village of Rauville la Bigot, four miles northwest of Bricquebec and nine miles south-west of Cherbourg. Allied forces gained some ground east oi Valognes. Another advance reached to within two miles of Valognes ano cut .the road from Valognes to Bricquebec. , Further east the enemy was once again driven from Tilly-sur-Seullet after fierce fighting. Heavy day-bombers yesterday afternoon attacked iPas de Calais, striking through thick clouds against pilotless aircraft launching sites. Three bombers are missing from this second attack for the day. Small formations , of medium-bombers and fighter-bomb-ers also attacked three targets. Despite bad weather light planes escorted shipping and patrolled the beaches. Some fighters broke through the cloud screen to bomb and strafe locomotives, motor vehicles, barges, and warehouses behind the lines. The -1 ' encountered intense flak at low level. Two medium bombers and fifteen fighters are missing from these operations. FURTHER ADVANCES ON PENINSULA. (Rec. 1.10 a.m.) LONDON, June 20. A correspondent at SHAEF saws that the Americans made further advances on Cherbourg Peninsula, especially in the Bricquebec-Rauville ’ areas. ‘ There is no definite news that German resistance has ceased in Montebourg, but the town’s value to the enemy as a pivotal strongpoint and eastern anchor has disappeared. The Americans now hold a line north of the Sindpe River, beyond Quineville. Although there is no sign of a “mad rush,’’ it is clear that every American unit is pushing on regardless of fatigue, knowing that the enemy is more tired than they are. Strong British patrols are operating south of Tilly towards the village of Hotot. Enemy armour continues to be forced to an unnatural role of defence in the eastern sector. UNPLEASANT CONDITIONS IN STRAITS. (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, June 20. Conditions were still unpleasant in the Straits of Dover early t'o-day, with a northerly wind blowing at not much under gale force. Advance on Cherbourg MORE TOWNS OCCUPIED. MANY PRISONERS TAKEN. LONDON, June 19Reuter’s correspondent with the United States Forces in Normandy, says: American troops, to-night, are eight miles from Cherbourg. They have occupied Bricquebec and Valognes. They presumably aim at enveloping Valognes in a pincers movement. Montebourg has been completely bypassed. The Germans trapped in the Peninsula are making a general retreat towards Cherbourg. They are reported to lack transport and supplies. The Americans have been shelling Cherbourg all day. The British United Press correspondent states that 700 prisoners were taken after the occupation of Barneville and hundreds more are being rounded up. The Allied corridor across the Peninsula, which yesterday fluctuated between four and five miles deep, is now seven or eight miles in depth. Our assault troops in the neighbourhood of Montebourg ■have gained ground towards Valognes. Intelligence officers say 300 Germans have been caught within our lines. “These Germans climb trees like the Japanese and fight tooth and nail for every hedgerow.” The correspondent adds that some Americans puzzled by shots could not discover whence the bullets were coming. They combed tbe fields with sappers and instruments, and found a small dugout covered with turf. Inside were five snipers— ; two women and three men.

Reuter’s correspondent who flew In an observation ’plane, writing just before the capture of Bricquebec, said: “I watched infantry skirmishing in a wooded valley before Bricquebec and saw a mile-long convoy captured. The German vehicles were moving to the rear. Dead Germans littered the fields outside Barneville. The stockade near Barneville was jammed with prisoners. The roads behind the battle area were filled with American lorries, with support infantry marching up in twin lines. German vehicles were ditched on the roads and fields, some burnt out and others still aflame, others being driven to the rear.” CHERBOURG UNDER FIRE. GERMANS DESTROY HARBOUR. LONDON, June 19. The National Broadcasting Company’s war correspondent says that American big land guns have begun to bombard Cherbourg. Simultaneously, the Berlin radio stated the Germans are destroying Cherbourg’s harbour to make it useless to the Allies. The Berlin radio obviously preparing the German people for the fall of Cherbourg, said that ships filled with concrete were being sunk in the harbour fairways. The docks and wharf facilities were being dynamited.

Later reports from British correspondents show that German forces sent to block the Allied drive to the west coast of Cherbourg Peninsula were completely routed. ‘‘German disorganisation is evident everywhere,” says one correspondent. “Vehicles were abandoned on the largest scale seen thus far on the invasion front. In some the engines of the vehicles were left running while the drivers and passengers fled to the fields to escape air strafing. This strafing was so effective that they never returned to the vehicles. American troops speeding through the broken lines found a German militarv policeman on point duty at one crossroad. With two other military policemen he had been sent to the intersection to direct a German convoy which did not turn up.”

ALLIES' STRANGLEHOLD STRENGTHENS. LONDON, June 19. A S.H A.E.F. communique says: The Allies’ stranglehold on the Cherbourg Peninsula has been strengthened by a series of local advances. An enemy attack was repulsed near Tilly, where heavy fighting continues. In the Caen area enemy shelling has increased considerably. Allied warships continued to give support on the eastern flank, yesterday, by engaging enemy mobile batteries. North of Caen successful shoots were carried out by H.M.S. “Diadem” against a concentration of enemy armour. NO GERMAN ATTACK FROM SOUTH. LONDON. June 19. It was learned at S-H.A.E.F. late to-night that besides Bricquebec, the Americans have captured at least a dozen villages and hamlets. There has been no evidence of any enemy attack against the corridor from the south. Marshal Von Rommel seems committed to a panzer division in the Caen sector. These obviously cannot be over to relieve the hardpressed troops on the Peninsula. The troops cut off in the north, unofficially estimated at 25 to 40 thousand, seem to have been left to their own resources. The country north of the corridor is difficult. Our forces appear to be preparing for the next step. Some units are being replaced by fresh troops. There have been minor ding-dong battles here and there, bur nothing which affects the front as a whole. NETWORK OF FORTIFICATIONS. LONDON, June 19. The “Evening Standard” says Cherbourg has a complete all-round network of fortifications. On the land side the port is ringed by a chain of defences several miles oeep. and the entire port is honeycombed with forts and strongpoints. It is one of the most heavily ' fortified places in Europe. The garrison is entrenched in deep underground strongholds behind formidable tank traps and acres of barbed wire. Their guns, in massive reinforced concrete emplacements, are sunk into the ground and covered by many feet .of earth. They have vast stocks of ammunition and food enough to withstand a long siege. “No one at 21st Army Group Headquarters assumes that such a great orize will be ours without heavy fighting,” the paper adds. “The importance of Cherbourg to us cannot be overestimated. We are achieving a military miracle in supplying our already considerable armies from the beachhead, but it cannot continue indefinitely. It would be too hazardous in wintery weather, so we must have a major port.” VALUE OF CHERBOURG TO ALLIES. (Rec. 10.40) LONDON, June 20. The “Daily Telegraph’s” naval correspondent, Commander Kenneth Edwards, emphasising the importance of Cherbourg in Allied plans, says that the capture of such a major’ port will enable heavy equipment to be unloaded from large ships lying alongside jetties, instead of on open beaches. Cherbourg has a very large roadstead protected by a breakwater forming .a deep-water harbour. The extent to which the port and facilities have been damaged by bombing and shelling and German demolitions is not yet known, but the Allies have had great experience in the rapid Rehabilitation of ports in North Africa and Italy, especially Naples. The Germans thought that they had thoroughly destroyed Naples. but through it passed men, equipment, and supplies which led to the rout of General Kesselring’s Fourteenth Army. AMERICANS' SWIFT ADVANCE. LONDON. June 18. A correspondent says: “The American troops advanced 15 miles in three and a half days to reach the coast Their swift thrust surprised and upset the German plans. The Germans have been endeavouring to save what proportion of their forces they can, but they are being harassed by heavy Allied air attacks iPart of the advance was made across flooded ground. Quantities of arms and equipment were captured and number of prisoners were taken. The last two miles of the advance were so rapid that it caused a bottle-neck, and the correspondent says that until this s widened, there are no grounds for over-confidence. Reinforcements of guns and troops are being rushed up to enable the Americans to hold the positions they have ca Pj- u^ ea ; Q i Another report says that the Americans now hold a four miles wide strip across the peninsula and are consolidating They are protected on tne south by a wide area of flooded country To reach the coast, the Americans had to fight their way field by field and orchard by orchard, halting when the opposition stiffened and calling on the artillery for a barrage. As the Americans neared the coast German resistance weakened as tne enemy tried to withdraw his troops before they could be trapped. The Americans have captured, however, a large number of the 79th Division as well as quantities of guns and ammunition. Fall of Tilly FOUR DAYS' VIOLENT FIGHTING. (Rec. 11 p.m. l ) LONDON, June 20. A British United Press correspondent in Normandy says that British troops have captured Tilly. The town fell after violent hand-to-hand fighting lasting four days, and ending in the Germans being driven from the ruins. •

British Troops enter tilly. RUGBY, June 19. i Fighting went on without a pause yesterday and last night in Tilly, through the streets of. the town strewn with rubble, and in and out of ruined houses. Later in the afternoon, British infantry, supported by tanks; forced a way into the town, around which there has been heavy fighting in the past ten days. Our forces got into the northern end of the town, and as they pressed through the main street heavy fighting developed. The Germans machine-guns hidden in the ruined buildings, and difficult for the infantry to get at. Tanks were called upon to silence some of these. From

point-blank range, the guns of the tanks shattered the buildings in which the enemy were hiding, silencing many machine-guns. German Tiger tanks, hidden in the gardens of houses at the southern end of the town, covered the crossroads and, .although our troops cleared the northern end, the enemy held grimly to the southern end, from which we could not dig them out. Hist before dark German tanks came out and attempted, with the help of infantry, to drive out our troops in the northern end, but the attack was thrown back and four Tigers were knocked out by anti-tank gunners. While this was going on, more of our infantry, using infiltration tactics which the enemy himself has used so frequently in this close country, succeeded in getting round one flank. But this morning the enemy still held the southern end, with our forces dug in at the opposite end. A few miles away, fierce fighting went on around a church in a little village. The Germans converted the church into a strongpoint, with the infantry dug in in the graveyards. Our troops found it a tough job to eject the enemy, who has machineguns mounted in the church steeple. EASTERN FIGHTING HELPS ADVANCE WEST (Rec. 10.40) LONDON, June 20. The “Daily Mail’s” military correspondent, Captain Liddell Hart, stresses the significance of Allied progress in the western sectors. He say’ that even the comparatively limited advance in the eastern sector vitally contributed to (be American gains in Cherbourg Peninsula. Outwardly, he states, the very tough fighting near Caen may appear to be a great effort for small results, but our efforts there have shielded the whole of our positions further west, and also absorbed powerful elements of the enemy's available forces at a critical time when they would otb.erwise have endangered our wider prospects.

"JUNGLE PARTY” ON ORNE. LONDON, June 19. The Associated Press correspondent with the British troops_says the Tommies, fighting in rain-drenched woods in the River Orne area, drove the Germans from a section and captured numerous prisoners in fantastically confused fighting. A staff officer described the fight as “a jungle party, with snipers in trees and the Allied troops forcing their way through thick undergrowth. WEATHER AGAIN RESTRICTS FLYING. LONDON, June 19. Bad weather severely 'restricted the activitv of the Allied Air Forces this morning. Fighter-escorted heavy bombers attacked pilotless aircraft emplacements at Pas de Calais and airfields in South-west France, including Bordeaux, Merignac, Cazaux, Landes de Buss and Cormeecluse, Seven bombers and 16 fighters are missing. Fighter-bombers have attacked an airfield near Rennes, and fighters flew patrols over beaches and the Channel. RECORD OF AIR ACTIVITY. RUGBY. June 19. From dawn on "D” Day to midnight last night fighter aircraft ot the R.A.F. Tactical Air Force and one group of the Air Defence .of Great Britain between them have flown nearly 25,000 sorties in support of the Second Front operations. More than half of the sorties were flown to provide cover for the beaches and the fighting zone and the remainder were offensive, mostly patrols behina the German lines and attacks on enemy troops and transport. These figures do not take into account the activities of the medium bomber force of the Tactical Air Force which in the same period has flown close on 2000 sorties, attacking enemy ammunition dumps, road and rail transport, panzer concentrations, and ground defence strongpoints. In spite of the fact that little was seen of the Luftwaffe and that enemv aircraft were encountered m .only small batches 239 German planes were destroyed by the fighters and many others were damaged, some so badly that they probably never, returned to their base. Our provisional maximum losses were 161 pilots. It is possible that some made forced or crashed landings in Normandy. Thunderbolt fighter-bombers are not permanently based in France it was announced to-day, by General Bereton, Commander of the Ninth Air Force.

AIRBORNE LANDING DESCRIBED. (Rec. 7.35) LONDON, June 19. A captain of the British Sixth Airborne Division, at a press conference , said that every detail .of the great airborne operation which won the Allies the first important footholds in Normandy was worked out in a quiet Wiltshire cottage, where .the planning staff toiled night and day for more than three months. “We worked out the whole operation from the R.A.F’s magnificent photographs and maps, with the result that every man landing in France knew which hedgerow he would be going up,” said the captain. “He had seen it all already.” The captain explained that they were to land on the left flank of the seaborne invasion up the Orne River and take one bridge over the Orne itself and another bridge over the canal. They also had to silence a heavy battery of four guns in terrific concrete emplacements which had withstood air bombing day and nignt for four months. Their third task was to blow up the bridges across the river Dives to prevent the Germans bringing up reinforcements. In small fields near the bridges their general decided to land a force of 180 gliderborne troops. The general said, '‘Crash into the bridges to stop yourselves.” The’ battery was probably their greatest problem. The general cided to drop a battalion of parachutists right alongside it. To create a diversion and enable them to break into the emplacements he arranged that three gliders should be crashlanded .on. top of the battery. general ordered, “Stream out and create hell.” It worked pretty fine all the way through. Everything the . general ordered was accomplished before daybreak.’ The five gliders landed near the bridges over the canal and over the Orne and took the last named easily. They han to fight hard for the canal bridge. The gliders did not land quite where they wished at the battery, but earlier the R.A.F.’s bombing, although it had not seriously damaged the emplacements, had created havoc with, the surrounding wired area and mines. The parachutists, after stiff opposition and some casualties, fought through I bomb craters and demolished the guns. The captain said that the landing ground chosen for the majority of the gliders, was a' high point covered with poles and deep trenches. The general was of the opinion that nobody but a fool would chose such a landing place and that therefore tne Germans would not. expect it. He was right. Lots of the gliders managed to land in small strips cleared by Parachutists. * Others were spiked and some, including the general’s finished with .their tails in the air. “ALLIES SHOOT ALL PRISONERS.” GERMANS ENCOURAGE TROOPS. (Rec. 8.5) LONDON, June 19. The “Daily Mail’s” 1 correspondent in Normandy says that to encourage

his troops to fight, Marshal Rommel is telling them that the Allies shoot all prisoners. “The prisoners I have seen in the past few days have been quaking with fear,” he states. One Panzer corporal was standing trembling before an interrogating officer when my driver fired off a few rounds from his tommy-gun into the air, just to keep it in trim. The prisoner shrieked in German, “Don’t . shoot. me, don’t shoot me!’ He said that. everv man had been told at least once I daily that the British shot all prisoners ” Dr. Goebbels is also trying to whoop up courage by special broadcasts describing the devastation of London bv | flying bombs. One broadcast said: “England cannot withstand this great weapon and must crumble and beg for Deace.” There is no doubt that propaganda regarding the shooting of prisoners induces a certain type of German to put up stiffer opposition, particularly the 18 to 20 year-olds, who were members of the Hitler Youth four, and even two. years ago. GERMANS’ NEW ANTI-TANK SHELL. LONDON, June 19. ' The Exchange Telegraph correspondent with advanced British forces says that the Germans have begun to use a rocket-propelled anti-tank shed. The weapon consists of a four-fom, tube wi'th an 88 m.m. shell at the nose. It is intended for short-range work and is operated by infantry. RESTRICTIONS ON DIPLOMATS LIFTED. (Rec. 8.20.) LONDON, June 19. The Foreign Office (has lifted the restrictions forbidding foreign diplomats in London from using diplomatic bags, to communicate by cypher, or to travel from the country, which was imposed at midnight on April 17. WAR MINISTER'S VISIT. LONDON, June 19. The Minister of War (Sir John Grigg) after a visit to the Normandy battlefront, at the invitation of General Montgomery, returned to England' full of hope and enthusiasm. He flew to Normandy yesterday morning, spent the afternoon and evening with General Montgomery, and returned last night. He brought a number .of wounded back in his plane. TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS LIFTED. RUGBY, June 19. From midnight, to-night, the travel and other restrictions on foreign diplomats have been lifted. “GREAT MOMENT IN HISTORY” RUGBY, June 19. Mr Churchill was entertained a few days ago at the Mexican Embassy, London. The function was not public, but it is revealed he said that this was a great moment in the hislory of the world, and the events that would occur in the next few months would show us whether we were soon to be relieved of the curse which had been laid on us by the ! Germans. He said that although several thousand people knew the date of the Normandy operation m 'advance, a tactical surprise was achieved, so that when the Germans saw the shins coming out of the mists they did -not know when, oi how, or where they were go.ing to be hit.