COUP OF U.S. FIGHTER PLANES

Grey River Argus, 16 August 1944, Page 5

COUP OF U.S. FIGHTER PLANES

All Enemy Traffic Stopped ON RAILWAYS AND ROADS EAST OF BATTLE AREA

(Rec. 9.20) LONDON, Aug. 15. A story of past weeks of concentrated strafing by Thunderbolts, Mustangs and Lightnings in efforts io cripple the road and railway communications over the north-east of France and over Belgium, so that Germans could not bring supplies and reinforcements to their hardpressed army west of the Seine River w'as told by a senior officer of the Eighth United Stales Air Force Command. These fighter planes a week ago switched from strategical work in escorting heavy bombers to tactical tasks. From the morning of August 7 until the night of Sunday, excluding one day, when they »operated strategically, they immobilised 900 locomotives, destroyed 1800 rail cars and 525 ofi cars —their principal objective—also 572 motor trucks, including 269 on Sunday. The net result was that not a wheel was turning on-Monday in the area over which we operated,” said the officer. “It was a large scale effort, organised and dealt with in a large scale way. There was no fighter opposition during the week, but the enemy flak was .an enormous danger to our pilots. It requires courage, determination and high skill, more than in aerial combat, to do what they did. It was known in the first week of August that the Germans’ position at the front was critical for some forms of supply and that they had planned to reinforce through Paris. Reconnaissance showed marshalling yards to be chock-a-block with locomotives and trains. The first operation w.as to wipe off traffic in the western part of the Pas de Calais area. Six groups comprising about 300 aircraft, flew two missions daily. The group leaders found lots of business. The primary target was anything containing oil, or suspected of containing ammunition. After a few days nothing moved in the area. Reconnaissance then showed traffic banked up in the Brussels area, so the effort switched thither. After two days nothing moved in. daytime. On Saturday, we turned the full strength on congested lines from Brussels to Strasbourg. We flew 13,000 sorties averaging four hours each, bombing railway tracks and strafing traffic both moving and in marshalling yards. The week finished with road strafing south-west of Paris.

PLIGHT OF PARIS. (Rec. 10.40.) LONDON, August 15. ' A “Times” correspondent in Bayeux, Normandy, states: Arrangements have been made for General De Gaulle’s Provisional Government to fly from Algiers to Paris as soon as the capital is liberated. If in the meantime, the enemy should be cleared out of a big town like Lyons, it might serve General Dq Gaulle as a stepping-stone to Paris.. His Commissioner for liberated territories, M. Andre Letrocquer, is mainly preoccupied with the plight of Paris. According to all reports, Paris is in a state of siege. The Seine bridges are down, the railways at a standstill, and virtually all communications are severed between Paris and the rest of France. All persons who have been in Paris recently give the same distressing picture of hollow cheeked citizens standing in endless queues for dwindling rations. M. Letrocquer estimates one thousand tons of supplies daily will be needed to feed Paris. Algiers radio says General Juin, former Commander-in-Chief of the French forces in Italy, has been appointed Chief of Staff of the Committee of National Defence. Paris has become a front-line city in the last few days, following the intensification of the fighting m France, says the German News Agency. In‘Paris, an atmosphere between panic and expectation developed. This excitement was increased by British and De Gaullist agents’ whispering campaign. They said the extreme date for the American maren along Champs Elyees would be August 15. German traffic is reported to be choking roads as far as Paris, as the enemy evacuates the Mortain-Vire line. An Allied staff officer described the air assault as an “all out air effort.” LONDON, Aug. 14.

A band of drink-crazed Germans last week almost razed the Breton village of Plouvain, and murdered most of the inhabitants, says the “Evening Standard’s” correspondent. The Germans entereid Plouvain, which is near Brest, at night soon after the victorious American forces had raced through in pursuit of the main German forces. The Germans smashed into cafes, seized all the available liquor, then ran from door to door, looting and shooting. They searched houses for men and murdered them one by one. The women were dragged from homes and forced to drink Hitler’s health and to suffer other indignities, while they watched their husbands and fathers die. At daylight the Germans toured airraid shelters, calling on the men to come out. As each man emerged he was shot dead. Maddened by the sight of the French flag flying from a church steeple, the Germans shelled the building as they left the village. When the American forces returned two days later they found most of the town gone. Not a single house, cafe or cottage was left undamaged. In the grounds of the battered church were 25 bodies of Bretons, sewn in blankets, including the bodies of a four-year-old child and some old men.

GERMAN TAILS DOWN. (Rec. 12.10.) NEW YORK, August Ip. A “New York Times’s” correspondent at Stockholm says: According to a well-informed traveller from tne Reich, seventy-five per cent, of tne diplomats in Berlin and higher, Nazi officials predict a German collapse within two months. He however pointed out that a collapse this time will not be tantamount to an armistice, because fanatical Nazis, having no other choice, will probably go on fighting with guerrilla warfare long after the last hope has gone, and military operations on German territo'ry, therefore, may well continue well into next Spring. The traveller explained that the Gestapo, as units, will continue fighting because they think they cannot expect pardon from the victors, and will also be forced to defend themselves against anti-Nazis, who will find the time opportune to settle old sco-m. Germans fear that prisoners of war and ioreign slave labour will run berserk between a German collapse and the end of the last Nazi resistance.

SCUTTLED ENEMY TANKS FOUND. (Rec. 8.40) LONDON, Aug. 15. A Press Association correspondent at S.H.A.E.F. headquarters says: . A rapid advance over territory which was the scene of recent R.A.F. Typhoon assaults against German armour is producing evidence that the Germans have taken to “scuttling” their tanks. Deep cut lanes in Normandy, while they afford excellent cover for the nanzers, proved a mixed blessing, for a large number of tanks has been found destroyed. Burned out tanks at the head and tail of columns bear the unmistakeable signature of the Typhoons. Others trapped 'between steep banks and cut off from advance or retreat bear ignominious marks of self-de-struction. Breaches were blown out, turrets detonated and fuel set alight.