MAJOR VICTORY

Grey River Argus, 15 August 1944, Page 5

MAJOR VICTORY

OPPORTUNITY NOW A CALL TO GRASP IT By General Eisenhower ENEMY'S RETREAT IN FRANCE blastelTby" allied BOMBERS. (Rec. 1.5) LONDON, Aug. 14. General Eisenhoker has issued the following order of the day: “Allied soldiers, sailors, and a’rmen: Through your comb'ned skill, valour and fortitude, you have created in France a fleeting, but- a definite, opportunity for a major Allied, victory, one whose real sation will mean notable progress towards the final downfall of our enemy. In the past I have, in moments of unusual significance, made special appeals to the Allied forces whom it has been my honour to command. The response, without exception, has been unstinted, and the result beyond my expectat’ons. Because the victory we can now achieve is infinitely greater than any it has thus far been possible to accomplish in the west, and because this opportunity may be grasped only through the utmost in zeal, determ'nation and speedy action, I make an appeal to you more urgent than ever before. I request every airman to make it his direct responsibility that the enemy is blasted unceasingly by day and night, and is denied safety, either in fight or flight. I request every sailor to make sure that no part of the hostile forces can either escape or be reinforced by I sea, and that oui’ comrades on land | want nothing that guns, ships and sh'ps’ companies can bring them. I request every soldier to go forward to his assigned objective with a determination that the enemy can survive only through surrender. Let no foot of ground once gained be relinquished, nor a s ngle German escape through the line once established. With all of us resolutely performing our special tasks, we can make this week a momentous one in the 'history of this war—a brilliant, fruitful week for us; a fateful one for the -ambitions of the Nazi tyrants.’’ '• Fast German Retreat ALLIED 'PLANES IN CLOSE PURSUIT. LONDON, August 13. Germans are retreating from the salient in southern Normandy, with all possible speed. On Saturday night 19 German convoys moving east towards the Seine were attacked from the air. It is significant the movement is not only by night, but by day. Allied aircraft laid a curtain of lire against the two remaining good routes leading east and on lesser routes. There are indications that the enemy is pulling out not so much because of orders but as the result of immediate necessity forced by American pressure.

The “Daily Express” ’ correspondent says: It is not a rout. It does not mean that Von Kluge has began a general retreat upon the Seine, it simply means that some time on Saturday he issued orders for his forces around Vire to disengage and haul out eastward while there is still time. The German pocket there grows smaller hourly in an operation like squeezing toothpaste—as we squeeze one end the German armour comes out of the other end near Falaise. English, American and Canadian troops are pressing closer all the time, squeezing the enemy tighter and tighter. A correspondent says: The German retreat to*the Seine from the thirty miles bulge west of the Orne is in full swing, thus conceding the biggest German defeat since D Day. German troops, transport and tanks, caught between British and American fire on both flanks and under terrific punishment from the air, are heading east in daylight, and the crisis heightens hourly. Full-scale support to the Allied pincer movement closing on the German armies between Caen and Alencon was delivered by American Marauders and Havocs in a series of closely coordinated attacks on highways and road junctions from Lisieux south-east of Rugles, near Daigle. Eighteen waves of from 15 to 18 ’planes attacked the 'roads leading into Disieux, Bernay and Rugles between 10.15 a.m. and 11.15 a.m. in the effort to render impassable all escape routes leading east. None of our aircraft is missing. American Advance DECISIVE FACTOR. LONDON". August 13. Tn France, there is one factor of the situation about which nothing can be published. That factor is the American advance beyond Le Mans. It may well be decisive. Probably the next few days will tell. Americans began a general advance at dawn and attacked in strength south of the Vire with infantry and armour. They struck a hard blow against the enemy following the first signs of the German withdrawal. The withdrawal was first observed on Saturday evening. The Luftwaffe put up 80 fighters—their largest formation of the campaign. Rocket-fir-ing Typhoons caused considerable destruction before dark They shot down four German ’planes, damaged a number of tanks, destroyed 74 vehicles and damaged 100. American tanks and infantry, after a two-mile advance in less than two hours, captured Sourdeval, says Reuter’s correspondent with the United States forces. Other armour is bypassing Sourdeval, moving southward. Intense pressure is maintained along the whole northern flank of the German salient, which runs now more or less straight from the road north of Falaise, through Thury to Sourdeval, south of Vire. The Allies are reported in the outskirts of Sour-, deval, and there is a firm junction near Vire, between British and American forces. The Allies thus far have contacted forty 'enemy divisions in France, and taken prisoner 115,003 Germans. BRITISH AND CANADIANS. 100,000 MEN CONVERGE. LONDON, August 13. A Reuter correspondent says: British and Canadian forces, who wiped out a German salient between the Orne and Laize, continued to advance southward towards roads leading east through Falaise, the main escape route for Germans caught between the British and Canadians and tne Americans driving up from Argentan. This is the first indication that Americans had reached Argentan, which means the German escape gap is narrowed to 18 miles, and they have been deprived of the best road for retreat. Germans east of the Orne were falling back towards the Thury-Harcourt -Falaise road when the Canadians caught up with them at Barbery. Heavy fighting is now going on between Fresney-le-Vieux and Boishaibout. The fighting between the Orne and Laise River is proceeding in terrain which does not give armour a chance to deploy. The Germans are being gradually pushed back from one Orne ridge after another. They have improvised a series of defence lines over which they are leap-frogging back, but no major stand could be contemplated on such a front.

Latest News FURTHER ALLIED GAINS

(Rec. 11.30) LONDON, Aug. 14. The S.H.A.E.F, communique on Monday states: Further progress was made east of the Orne River where Allied troops entered Clairtizon Donway. An advance was continued south of Saint Pierre La Viella along high ground on each side to Conde. We gained "round southeast of Vire in heavy fighting. Further south, towards Mortain, our forces followed up a German withdrawal. They encountered mines and long-range artillery fire. In Brittany an Allied attack against Dinard cont nues to meet strong resistance. The remnants of the German garrisons in Saint Malo still hold out in the citadel. Our units made slight advances in the vicinity of Brest. There is no change in the situation at I’Orient.

Week-end Air Blitz

AGAINST ENEMY IN FRANCE.

(Rec. 9.30.) LONDON, August 14. Saturday and Sunday proved the most effective period for Allied air operations since D Day. Tn day-long operations covering virtually all Northern and,Central France, except the immediate’battle zone. Eighth Air Force pilots on Sunday destroyed 2,110 railway freight cars, 221 locomotives, 207 trucks, and 79 other military vehicles, as well as a forty-car ammunition train near Rouen. They also attacked twenty-three marshalling yards, fourteen bridges, three tunnels and various other targets. Coastal Command Beaufighters, escorted by Spitfires at dawn on Sunday blasted a German convoy of thirteen ships off the Frisian Isles. They left two merchantmen and five flak-ships afire after an attack with rockets, torpedoes and cannon. Strong forces of Spitfires escorted by Marauders and Havocs of the U.S.A.' Ninth Bomber Command on Sunday afternoon attacked railway bridges north and east of Amiens and east of Druex. They also set fire to a fuel transfer point at Corbeil. There was no fighter opposition, but heavy flak. Two Marauders are missing. Fighters covered Lancasters on Sunday evening when they attacked an oil storage depot for submarines at Bordeaux. There was a surprise attack on a concentration of German armour and motor transport lined up in a village and on roads south-east of Falaise on Sunday morning, bv rocket-firing Typhoons, which destroyed seven tanks, and probably destroyed two, and destroyed twenty-one motor vehicles, and probably ■ destroyed eleven, and damaged six. SUNDAY’S ALLIED AIR

OFFENSIVE (Roc. 12.40) LONDON, Aug. 14. Monday’s S.H.A.E.F. communique says: On Sunday heavy bombers and medium bombers attacked highways and road junctions on both sides of the Seine from Par.’s to the sea and westwards to Lisieux and Rugles. Medium bombers also attacked rail bridges at Peronne, Beautor, Doullens and Cherisy; rail facilities at Cordeil, and enemy gun positions in the Falaise area. Heavy bombers also attacked a railway bridge over the Seine at Le Manoir, U-boat shelters at Brest, an oil storage depot for U-boats at Bordeaux, gun positions at Saint Malo and He DeceEmbre. There are fourteen of our heavy bombers and two medium bombers m’ssing from these operations. Fighters and fighter-bombers and rocket-firing fighters provided cover for ground forces, and bombed and strafed tanks, motor transport, strong points and troop concentrations in the battle zone. Fighers also ranged over north-eastern and central France attacking locomotives, railway cars, motor transport and canal barges. Other fighters provde r i escort for bombing missions. Light bombers on Sunday night continued attacks against transport targets behind enemy lines.

GERMANS’ ADMISSION SHIELD FOR PARIS BURSTED (Rec. 9.10) LONDON, Aug. 14. A Stockholm correspondent of “The Times” says: Berlin commentators frankly admit Allied troops burst a dam which German armies formed to •cover Paris, and are now sweeping over a broad countryside. A Reuter correspondent in Normandy reports the R.A.F.’s Second T.A.F. on Sunday destroyed, or damaged, 44 German tanks, and 283 transport vehicles in the FalaiseArgentan gap. The Germans have been packing men and material into Red Cross transports, also putting red crosses on other vehicles. No Sign of Rout EARLIER REPORTS, EXAGGERATED. (Rec. 9.30.) LONDON, August 14. The recent front-line reports of a German retreat in France are still regarded in London with caution. If there is a withdrawal occurring, it de finitely is an .orderly withdrawal so far as the forward enemy troops are concerned. This statement is in accordance with the S.H.A.E.F. midnight statement on the- position. S.H.A.E.F. states: The Germans' resistance at both ends of the line has stiffened. It is known that some enemy armoured forces moved eastward, but there has been no widespread withdrawal. There has been no official comment on the front-line report that American forces were beyond Argentan. There have been two minor advances. One was east of Vire down the Tinche-Bray road to within four miles of Tinche-Bray. The second was a further advance towards Con de-sur-Noi-Reu, with British troops now on high ground within five hundred yards of Conde. They apparently are overlooking Conde. In tne Mortain-Vire area, th e enemy’s resistance south of Vire decreased slightly. There has been a limited American advance along the Gathemo-T incheBray road. Americans also worked their way south of Sourdeval. Ail Allied advance in the general Mor-tain-Vire area made some progress, but though resistance has become slightly less, it is an advance made m contact with enemy forces.

German Collapse WITHIN TWO MONTHS

MAX WERNER’S OPINION.

(Rec. 9.50) LONDON, Aug. 14. Max Werner, a noted military commentator, says: The German Army could definitely be broken within the next eight weeks. After a collapse of the German Army, political, social and economic disintegration of Germany as an organised State would begin. We have reached the final stage of the War, when military operations of relatively brief duration, and even of limited scope, can create radical changes. At this stage the pace of the war can be immensely accelerated, and it is possible to calculate prerequisites of victory in terms of military power in space and in time. The defence of Germany to-day rests on three main areas—the north-west of Paris, around Warsaw and in East Prussia. There are about one hundred German divisions in these areas. The rest of the German forces are cut off and dispersed,

It will not be necessary to smash every German division to win victory It will be sufficient to defeat these main German defensive concentrations. When they are broken, the German Army will collapse, and Germany will be defenceless before Allied armies. My time _ limit of eight weeks is quite sufficient to see the breaking of these hundred divisions.” GERMAN PEACE OFFERS A U.S. PRESS PREDICTION (Rec. 8.20) LONDON, Aug. 14. The Scripps Howard Newspapers’ Washington correspondent says:—Germanv will make a peace offer within 60 days. That offer will be turned down. But, as in 1918, another an r ] more panicky appeal will follow. Now, as then, the Germans must have peace at any cost. Hitler, of course, will have nothing to do with these offers. They will be made in spite of him. He’ may no longer be in a position to object.