125-MILE FRONT

Grey River Argus, 18 August 1944, Page 5

125-MILE FRONT

IN SOUTH FRANCE INVADERS TURN To Cut Off Marseilles five bridge-heads HUGE FRENCH FORCE IN INTERIOR. [Aus. & N.Z. Press Assn.] LONDON, Aug. 16 Allied headquarters in the' Mediterranean stated on Wednesday:— “The beach-head in southern France between Nice and Marseilles has been extended and widened. Substantial numbers of Allied troops, with guns, munitions, and supplies, had been landed on the Riviera beaches by dark on Tuesday evening. Enemy opposition remains sporadic No enemy air attacks have yet been reported. Some high ground behind beaches has been captured. Prisoners have been taken. Our troops are moving steadily inland. On beaches where the landings were successful against light opposition, operations are proceeding satisfactorily. Our naval gun fire is reported very effective. The Navy is continuing to land troops and stores without interruption. Allied convoys are already, leading on the return voyage from the assault area, and new • convoys are arriving.” There is no confirmation of a report that Allied troops are in Cannes. The Allies have established themselves firmly between Cannes and Toulon. The German New Agency’s commentator, Captain Sertorius stated: — Allied air-borne formations on Tuesday, landed between Cannes and Nice, and the enemy has since been reinforced from the sea. Beach-heads have been established at Hyeres Bay, at Cape de St. Tropez and St. Raphael. As in the landing in Norway it was the Allies’ strong air and naval superiority whench enabled them to obtain a foothold. The Allied line of attack now stretches about 124 miles along the Riviera coast. Another correspondent said:— French and American troops , are streaming ashore in great numbers, fully equipped and compently led. There has been unusual aggressiveness displayed by both the assault and follow-up units. The losses have been light. Mr. Churchill visited Corsica on August 14 and then proceeded by destroyer to watch the landings. Barges loaded with Frencn and Americans, before dawn on Wednesday began pouring into beachheads captured. Thousands of Americans reached far inland from the Riviera coast. No strong ground opposition was encountered. MOVE TO CUT OFF MARSEILLES. (Rec. 10.25) LONDON, Aug. 17. A British United, Press correspondent at Madrid quoted a Vichy report saying that the Allies begun a great drive to cut off Marseilles. Armoured ears already were striking along roads leading to Aix and Salon. FIVE ALLIED BRIDGE-HEADS GERMAN REPORTS LONDON, Aug. 16 The German News Agency announced 1 the Germans had blown un harbour works at Nice, Cannes, and S't. Tropez. The Agency to-night listed five bridge-heads which it said the Allies hold along a 35 to 40 miles stretch on the Riviera coast. Firstly, between Cannes and S't. Raphael; secondly west of St. Raphael; thirdly, St. Maxime, 10 miles south-west of St. Raphael; fourthly, Cavalaire, nine miles south-west of St. Ropez; fifthly, Le Lavandou, eight miles southwest of Cavalaire and 23 miles west of Toulon. It added that heavy fighting continued' to-day near the mouth of the Argens River, with paratroops dropped farther inland.

ALLIED AIR MASTERY.

ENEMY ROUTES BLOCKED.

(Rec. 8.50.) LONDON, Augtfst 17. The Reuter correspondent at the Allied Headquarters in Italy says: The Allied Air Forces have a complete mastery in the sky over invasion ' beaches and over an area thirty to fifty miles inland. Since the landing on Tuesday, Luftwaffe opposition has almost been non-existent. Allied heavy bombers on Wednesday attacked railways and bridges on vital supply routes behind the front, including two across the Iser River to Grenoble and Saint Pierre da Bigny. All eastwest traffic across the River Rhone north-west of Marseilles has been blocked as a result of direct hits on a road bridge at Arles. Allied fighters are going inland to start a familiar role in strangling German supply lines. A Combined Press representative stated that from an observation plane he watched air-borne troops land m southern France on Tuesday morning, and they were safely transported in 396 troop-carriers, while 265 ’planes later brought reinforcements, ammunition' and! food supplies. Douglas Dakotas brought in paratroops, towing olive green wood and convas gnciers. A Reuter correspondent says: Hundreds of Tricolours with the Cross of Lorraine are flying on the Riviera coast, to-day, hoisted by French forces on the beach-heads and also on Cape Negre and the hills behind the beach-heads. Napoleon when ne landed in these parts on his return from Elbar could' not have received a warmer welcome than that given the French troops. The inhabitants embraced the French soldiers and cried over them. Algiers radio said: Allied columns have reached points 20 miles inland and 1 have taken 2,000 German prisoners. Allies firmly hold three beachheads between Marseilles and Nice, while Cannes and the small neighbouring village of Croix des Gardes have been liberated. A correspondent says the Germans may have in Southern France onl.M seven or eight divisions ready for immediate action. They are believed to have little armour and little available air support. South of the River Loire there are certainly, no more than ten German divisions, and that is probably) an overestimate. There is practically no armour, and four or five divisions are reported to be manning the Mediterranean coastal defences. They are thinly spread. THE COMMANDERS LONDON, Aug. 16 The Commander of the Seventh Armv which is making the Riviera landings is General A. M,. Pach. Prior to assuming command of the Seventh Army, in March, he had wide experience with the American Forces on Guadalcanal. He first commancided the American Forces which occupied New Caledonia, and later directed the American Forces at Guadalcanal and also commanded the Fourteenth Corps in the Pacific. He served with the First Infanty Division in France in the First- World War.

The Commander of the Naval For-

ce s is Admiral H. K. Hewitt, United States Navy. The Air Forces are commanded by General Gordon _R. Saville, who commands the U.S.A. Twelfth Tactical Air Force. General Delattre de Tassigny, who attempted a gallant rising when the Germans occupied Southern France in November, 1942, and who . subsequently escaped from captivity to toin the Allied camp, is commanding "the French forces landing as part or the new Allied Expeditionary Force in Southern France. General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson is in Supreme Command of the Mediterranean theatre, including Italy, and Lieut. General Devers, United States Army, is as far as is known, still Deputy Supreme Commander. The Berlin radio named General Blaskowitz as the German Commander in the south of France.

Marquis’ Huge Army

READY IN CENTRAL FRANCE TO

BLOCK ENEMY.

I Aus. & N.Z. Press Assn.]

(Rec. 9.0.) LONDON, August 17. There is now an army of seven hundred and fifty thousand well-armed and well disciplined French patriots poised to trap the Germans m French mountain passes as other Allied forces push them northward from the Mediterranean. French circles in London say the Maquis are waiting on the only possible lines of a German retreat, and are in a position effectively to block the Rhone Valley and also the passage to the Atlantic coast. For months, they say, the Germans have abandoned the mountains to tne Maquis. They have not attempted to prise the Maquis out, but have concentrated on holding garrison towns. Outlines of a general strategic plan, which the Maquis are working in central France, co-ordinated with the Allies’ advances, are now growing clear. The Maquis groupings now form a square inside of France, stretching from the mountains of the Italian frontier westward to the Pyrenees Mountains, and northward to the Garonne district, and then eastward again, through the Loire and Rhone departments to the Savoy Alps. French circles in London say that tne Maquis numbered about two hundred and fifty thousand on D Day, and that they now total at least seven hundred and fifty thousand. British and American supplies have been dropped to the Maquis by parachute, and have enabled them to build well-equipped mountain strongholds. They have modern arms, and have hospitals equipped with most up-to-date apparatus, A “Daily Express” reporter who visited the Maquis Commander, General Koenig’s Headquarters, says: “General Koenig has an army which would be the pride of any general. All over this mountain range are strewn camps of varying importance, some consisting of twenty men, and other garrisons consisting of thousands. At one camp, in a disused quarry. I was shown a display of modern Bntisn and American weapons, which revealed how efficiently Allies had landed material by parachute. All the soldiers. were robust, suntanned and toughened by life in the mountain air. They looked the finest bunch of men one could see. Their food is perfect. German prisoners peeled their potatoes, mended their boots, washed their clotnes, and tended their cattle, worries continually arrived with new recruits. At least two hundred and fifty Gendarmes from. Thomon, on Lake Geneva, recently joined them. Every French town along Lake Geneva is garrisoned by Germans, and yet is under the complete control ot the Maquis.”' • - French partisan troops, co-opei-ating in thousands . with the Allied paratroops, are to-day on the point of taking Marseilles from which the Germans are moving towards loulon, says the Swiss newspaper La Suisse,” quoting French frontier reP °A S Swiss papers said French advance guards are on the way to Ventimiglia, an Italian border town. The French Forces of the Interior mav help close the narrow Rhone Valley north of • Valence. If this could be achieved it is possible the bulk of the Germans units m the south-east of France would be trapped. They may be forced to fight it out on the spot, and the complete liberation of all France, south of .a line along the Seine to the Swiss frontier opposite Basle, may be a good deal nearer. French Forces of the Interior have been holding the Vercors mountains south-west, of Grenoble to the east of the Rhone Valiev, as well as the greater part of the Ardeche Department, for many weeks. Both these regions are close to the valley narrows, and if reinforcements could be sent there any German withdrawal bevond the narrows would be .stopped. During the latest fighting in the Vercors mountains, in the south-east of France, the Germans lost 1000 men killed. Throughout France the enemy’s movements have been disorganised by sabotage. Telephones, cables, and the delivery of equipment expected from factories working for the Germans have been reduced to nothing. Reuter’s correspondent on the Franco-Spanish frontier says Maquis on Wednesday began an attack in the direction of Pau. Thev are using artillery taken from the Ger-

mans at Mauleon, which they recaptured after losing it to the Germans a month ago. The garrison of Pau is estimated at between 2500 and 3000. It .attempted to evacuate to the north a few days ago, but was compelled to turn back. A British United Press Berne correspondent states: Maquis started a general tmrising against the Germans in the Haute S.avoie early on Wednesday. They attacked garrisons near the Swiss frontier and continuous gunfire was heard in Switzerland, indicating that the fighting was progressing. The M.aquis employed strong forces, including artillery captured from the Germans, and four hours after the assault started they had captured St. Julien, near the Swiss border, also Cruseilles. The “Manchester Guaiid’an’s” military correspondent refers to the important nart which is likely to be played by the Maquis, who will nean rewards for their long struggle against the Germans. For months the Maquis have carried on constant sabotage against German communications in the south. From the Eastern Pyrenees to the Italian frontier railways have been .attacked, power stations and transformers have been blown up, and telegraph lines cut and kept cut. x South of the River Garonne towards the Pyrenees and eastwards from the Rhone towards the Alps the Maquis’ activity has been constant, and control by the patriots has been extended steadily. Towards the eastern frontier of France, notably in the department of Doubs, Jura, Ain Savoie and ..Drome and to the west of the Rhone in Ardeche, the Maquis have achieved a wide degree of control which will be invaluable to the Allies in helping to maintain and secure the flanks of the Rhone Valley, the tradit’onal route leading on through the valley of the Saone to the Belfort gap and the German frontier. . , . The Germans, as a repr.sal lor an attack on a German convoy, burnt to the mound two villages on the upper-Loire, state authoritative French circles in London.