QUIETER DAY

Grey River Argus, 4 July 1944, Page 5

QUIETER DAY

IN NORMANDY ENEMY LICKS HIS SORES Odon Bridgehead Strengthened f Aus. & N.Z. Pr-Qss assn.i (Rec. 11.15) LONDON, July 3. Monday’s S.H.A.E.F. communique states: Our Odon River bridgehead was further strengthened on Sunday morning. Enemy activity was on a reduced scale, owing, probably, to a severe mauling he received on Saturday. There were some enemy attacks, but they were firmly repulsed. There is nothing to report from the remainder of the front. The weather continued to restrict air activity on Sunday, but fighterbombers attacked bridges oyer the Orne. Fighters attacked vehicles on roads behind the enemy’s lines. Twenty-one enemy planes were shot down and three of burs are missing. One enemy plane was shot aown over Normandy last night. For a few minutes on Sunday evening the front in the Tilly-Caen area was strangely quiet as two whiteflagged American ambulances drove towards the German lines to return six German nurses, who had voluntarily remained in Cherbourg to attend to German wounded, says a British United Press correspondent. “A German Major and Captain met the ambulance, and, as the nurses scrambled out, the Major remarked: “Hot day, isn’s it?” Someone agreed, but there was no further conversation. The ambulance then returned, and immediately afterwards, there was a terrific exchange of machinegun and mortar fire. The German News Agency reports that they are under the command of Colonel General Geyer von Schweppenberg, .a former military attache in London with long experience of leading panzer divisions aga'nst the Russians. The German units so far identified are the 2nd Panzer Division, one of the best at the enemy’s command; the 21st Panzer Division, also reputed to be one of the best panzer divisions; the 12th Panzer Division, one of Germany’s elite divisions which is believed to be led by the Captain of S.S. Correspondent at S.H.A.E.F. report that the" Rodney shelled an enemy concentration south-south-west of Caen from a range of 17 to 18 miles, which is almost the extreme range of the battleship’s 16-inch guns. The Rodney hurled scores of one ton shells against enemy targets. The German News Agency stated:

“All the Berlin newspapers, commenting on the situation after four weeks of the invasion, unanimously stress the seriousness of the positions. “Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung” says: “Germany must look on the next round gravely and tensely. Our position is undoubtedly better to-day than in 1917.” The Berlin radio announced that Major-General Wilhelm Salley was killed in action on the western front It is learned at S.H.A.E.F. that General Salley was commander of the 91st German Division, and was killed defending Cherbourg.

EXTENT OF BRIDGEHEAD.

IS BIG ENEMY ATTACK COMING ?

(Rec. 12.34.) LONDON, June 3. A British United Press correspondent at S.H.A.E.F. says: Allied forces hold a bridgehead of eleven hundred square miles, running for 125 miles along the Normandy coast, with a zigzag front, 111 miles long, having at its greatest width inland a distance ot twenty miles. , The establishment of the bridgehead has resulted in from 90 to 100 thousand enemy casualties. It has been learned at S.H.A.E.F. that there has been little enemy activity in the Evrecy sector during the past twelve hours. British patrols worked their way forward to the village of Brettevillette, in the northwest corner 1 of the salient. They found the village clear of the enemy but there were many booby traps. Marshal Von Rommel may be going to use his armour and artillery properly in a big attack, but the Allies consider as satisfactory evidence .that some of seven Panzer divisions that the Germans are using have come from strategical reserves, and also that they are using skilled Panzer personnel as infantry. This is an indication that Allied Air Forces have prevented sufficient tanks being brought up for their correct use by Panzer personnel. ALLIED AIR REPORT LONDON', July 3. The weather over the bridgehead was extremely bad on Monday morn" ing, reducing the air activity to a minimum. The weather, however, was favourable for the Navy, and unloading on beaches w.as continued without pause. Heavy rain fell in the Straits of Dover on Monday morning, with the cloud almost at sea level, but the weather was a little brighter at mid-day. ALLIED NAVAL ACTIVITY i LONDON, July 3. Reuter’s correspondent, S.H.A.E.F. says that the fact that for twentyseven days a mass of Allied ships of every description has lain off the Normandy beaches, comprising a standing challenge to Admiral Doenitz’s U-boat fleet, and has got away with it, is in an unspectacular fashion, as great a sea victory as Anglo-American navies ever won. Even four years ago naval opinion would have considered maintaining so many vessels anchored so far from home ports impracticable. The fact that the operation has proved possible and successful is final proof of the defeat of the U-boat in this war as an effective War winning instrument. Our naval losses off Normandy have been light, though it is most improbable that merchant shipping losses will be announced. THE AMERICANS' ACTIVITIES. (Rec. 12.30.) LONDON, July 3. Americans have carried out minor local attacks in two areas where recent fighting has left dangerous salients. One in the extreme western sector between Le Haye, Saint Lo and Dourville, and the other slightly west of Caumont. Both actions have succeeded in straightening the line, and gaining, more advantageous ground. The surrender of the last resistance groups in the Cap de la Hague area netted the Americans two or three thousand troops. The American conquerors of Cherbourg are now rapidly reorganising for offensive work elsewhere. . A Reuter correspondent with the United States forces in Cherbourg, earlier stated: A Fighting French ofcial in Cherbourg: Peninsula is already recruiting and training Frenchmen to fight in the coming campaigns. A recruiting drive has just begum, but more than 200 are beginning mitral training. Former French seamen are

also being recruited for service on French warships. M. Phillipe Renault, Mayor of Cherbourg, said the citizens were hoping to receive meat from the Americans in return for supplying the United States Army with butter and fresn vegetables. M. Renault said that half the population have now returned to their homes from the woods where they hid during the battle. The Mayor said Cherbourg was now a poor city. It had paid the. Germans two million francs in war fines. The Germans seized the bulk of the wine production and foodstuffs, and even the towns people’s bicycles. CHERBOURG HARBOUR LONDON, July 2. The chief deep water berth in Cherbourg harbour is blocked by lar a e sunken ships. It is stated at SHA.E.F. that a tremendous amount of debris will have to be removed. Reuter’s correspondent at Cherbourg says Commodore W. A. Sullivan, a United States Navy expert, who cleared Naples for Allied shipping and salvaged the sunken, burntout’ Normandie from New York harbour, is the naval port commander at. Cherbourg. He says: “Things are already under way here.” Minesweepers are constantly working in both the inner and outer harbours. General von Schlieben, the captured military commander of Cherbourg, and Admiral Hennecke, who was also captured at the same time, are full of admiration of the destructive power of our artillery. They told Major-General Moore, Chief Engineer of the European theatre of operations of the United States Army, that it was superior to anything they had seen, even on the Russian front. Revealing that almost all the enemy shipping in Cherbourg harbour had been sunk, General Moore gave a comprehensive picture of the Allied • planning for the reconstruction of the port, made long before D Day, of extensive demolitions by the Germans, and told how the operations of the Allied engineers were being carried out to put the facilities into working order as speedily as P °“We 6 had been getting information about the port some two years ago, and we were not strangers when we walked in.” The Germans did a very clever job in demolitions they went very strongly after the deepwater facilities. The walls of the berthing dock between the Quay de Normandie and the Gare Maritime were very badly damaged and to repair them will be a very difficult job. There is a 26ft tide at Cherbourg, compared with 2ft at, Naples. With the railways they again picked out things difficult to repair. flhey wrecked the signal installations to various points, and went after the longest bridges. Conversations between delegates of Britain and France on civil administration and currency in France has now been completed, stated a Reuter diplomatic correspondent. A draft has been submitted for the approval of Britain and the French Committee of National Liberation. After approval of the text of the draft the agreements will be submitted to Washington, where it is hoped they may serve as a basis tor agreements to which the United States could subscribe. The drafts did not deal with the question of the titular recognition of the French Committee’ as .a provisional government of the French Republic.

GRUESOME BOOBY-TRAPS

LONDON, July 3.

Several correspondents report that the Germans for the first time in France are resorting to fiendish booby-traps, mining bodies of their dead comrades. LONDON, July 2. British troops were patrolling south of Odon in the area of Evrecy and Esquay to-day, but the Germans were lying low, states Reuter’s correspondent on the Tilly-Caen front. The Germans, by mid-day, had not re-acted to our patrols, despite the fact, they were so sensitive and nervous in the past few days that the rustle of leaves or the snapping of twigs has been sufficient to draw violent reaction. The (British United Press correspondent says: To-day was quiet compared with yesterday. Our troops are mainly resting in muddy slit trenches and barns, while French civilians, in their Sunday best, a few thousand yards from the front, are walking under threatening clouds and occasional rain showers. In the tank battles around Caen the enemy threw in against the British the best armour he could muster. Seven German armoured divisions have been engaged. “I am completely confident about the present situation,” said the Commander of the 2nd. Army (Lieutenant General M. C. Dempsey) when giving his first press conference on the TillyCaen front. “We are ready for the enemy and prepared to meet him. W e are well disposed and properly balanced, while the enemy’s communications ar e in a very dicky state. He may fight here or fall back where his communications are better. “We have taken prisoners in the past twenty-four hours-from fresn forces which the enemy is rushing up to stop us. It has been established that German troops from the Russian front are fighting on the Normandy front.”