GAP NARROWS

Grey River Argus, 16 August 1944, Page 5

GAP NARROWS

IN NORMANDY German Retreat IN GOOD ORDER STAND AT FALAISE MAINTAINED [Aus. & N.Z. Press Assn.] LONDON, Aug 14 A staff officer at General Dempsey’s headquarters said: A continuous flow eastwards of retreating Germans, armour and “soft” vehicles from the gap between Falaise ana Argentan is still going on. But the Air Force impression is that this is in no sense the kind of retreat one hears about on the Eastern Front. About 1000 vehicles were shot up on Sunday, but the enemy managed to preserve order extremely well. He used side roads, hedgerows and armour interspersed with soft vehicles. There were seldom more than 30 vehicles in convoys. The enemy got some forces halfway out of the bulge west of the Orne on Sunday night. Groups of small convoys were previously seen passing through the gap south of Falaise. Reuter’s correspondent says there is still no evidence. to suggest where the German Commander intends to form a new line. Besides more than 100,000 -men, there are approximately 1,200 tanks and nearly 400 huge German assault guns in the retreating forces. German forces threatened with being locked include the heart of Hitler’s remaining armour in the west. A U.S.A. National Broadcasting Company's correspondent says; The German orders are to stand and fight, j and to withdraw only when necessary. That is exactly what theyi are doing. Hitler is throwing in a_considerable number of foreigners. Eighty per cent, of the reinforcements are foreign. Meantime, General Von Kluge is scraping the Fas de Calais, area — where on D. Day, the heaviest German concentrations in the west were centred —for reinforcements for his battle of retreat. More German transport thronged the roads on Sunday and Monday than at any time since the summer of 1940. The movement follows two main roads, first < from Mortain-Flers towards the gap ; between Falaise and Argentan, and second form the north-east coast towards Paris and the Seine. It is not certain how much of the German army, is east of Falaise. All evidence indicated the withdrawal is being conducted in reasonably well organised fashion, well spaced out, full use being made of the secondary roads. A British United Press correspondent before Falaise said Allied planes were over Falaise in the first light of Monday morning. The roar of bombs mingled with a crash of .cannon. Air Forces were combining with the Army to deal a smashing blow against enemy vehicles on the road as they tried to pull out of the trap. The gan between the Canadian and American armies in the Falaise area is now less than fifteen miles. It narrowed by, two and a half miles to-day, when the Allies advan-, ced under heavy bombardment from eleven heavy R.A.F. heavy bombers. We discovered, as we advanced that the enemy’s withdrawal had greatly speeded up. He is leaving one-third of his numbers to the defence of the retreat routes while the other twothirds escape. Another correspondent said: — Smashed at from the air under almost cloudless skies, and attacked everywhere by land forces, the German 7th Army is threatened with annihilation in the daylight retreat eastwards. Von Kluge’s battered divisions are struggling towards a continually narrowing gap between the Falaise and Argentan areas. At the latest this gap was between 17 to 25 miles wide. Co-ordinate strategy has produced a situation in which Anglo-American armies and air forces have the German 7th Army on roads where airmen can turn the retreat into a rout. The Germans are fighting bitter rearguard actions at a number of key points to stave oft disaster. . . Americans and Canadians are using two thousand tanks in the present battle, states Guenther Weber the German overseas New Agency correspondent. A Reuter's correspondent says: The third American army and the first Canadian army each have one thousand planes at their disposal. On Monday night the Allies had narrowed the escape gap for the bulk of the German armies in Western France to 12 miles. The majority, of frontline reports suggest that withdrawals through the gap were not on such a large scale as on the previous day. Correspondents at S.H.A.E.F. consider it possible that the fleeing divisions found the earlier devastating air pounding too much for them. A “Daily Express” correspondent at General Dempsey’s Headquarters says there is no main road between here and Paris, which has not been blitzed by Allied fighter-bombers. It is the infantry that the Germans a're leaving behind—infantry that has no means of transport except their feet. Enemy convoys have orders to. go as fast as they can and keep going, stated a “Daily Mail” correspondent near Falaise. They have in some places been travelling at fifty miles per hour, each vehicle for itself. The Germans have now completed an iron girdle of defences around Fala'se. They include dug-in Tigers, Panthers and Mark IV special tanks of the S.S. Armoured Division, stretching in a semi-circle. To-day massed batteries were shelling the Falaise-Lisieux highway, which was jammed with every type of vehicle the Germans were able to get to hasten their withdrawal.