MOMENTOUS WEEK AHEAD

Kaikoura Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 64, 17 August 1944, Page 3

MOMENTOUS WEEK AHEAD

EISENHOWER CALLS TO ALLIED FORCES. LONDON. August 14. General Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in France, has issued an urgent order of the day to all the Allied forces. He calls on them to seize with speed, zeal, and determination an opportunity which they have created for a major Allied victory. Addressing his order to the soldiers, sailors, and airmen of the Allied forces, General Eisenhower tells them ‘that by their combined skill, couiage, and fortitude they have created a fleeting but definite opportunity for a major Allied victory which would mean notable progress towards the downfall of the enemy. He recalls his previous appeals to his forces, saying that the response to these has without exception surpassed expectations. The present opportunity, he adds, may be grasped only if all display their utn*ost speed, zeal, and determination.

The order asks every airman to make it his direct responsibility to see that the enemy is blasted incessantly day and night. Every sailor must make sure that no part of*the enemy’s forces can escape by sea, and that no reinforcements reach the enemy by sea. Every soldier must go forward to his assigned objective with determination that the enemy can survive only through surrender, and that no foot of ground, once gained, shall be gi\en up. If all perform their tasks, the ordei concludes, they can make this week a momentous one in the history of the war.

Allied advances on all sectors in France are reported. The Canadians south-east of Caen have widened and deepened the wedge they are driving towards Falaise, and have taken more villages. The British 2nd Army, west of Falaise, has driven forward towards high ground near Conde. All along the British and Canadian front the Germans are contesting every inch of ground and there is no sign of an enemy collapse. Further west between Vire and Mortain, the Germans have been forced into a general withdrawal. South-east of Mortain the Americans have crossed the Mayenne River between the town of Mayenne and Domfront. Substantial American forces have reached the area of Argentan (about 12 miles south-east of Falaise), as part of a turning movement with the British west of Falaise. The purpose of the American advances in this area is to cut off as many as possible of the Germans attempting to withdraw eastward through the gap below Falaise. About 5500 sorties were flown by Allied aircraft yesterday (Sunday)) in attacks on German communications ana military traffic. Reuter’s Normandy correspondent re ports that the Royal Air Force and the 2nd Tactical Air Force yesterdaj destroyed or damaged 44 German tanks and 283 transport vehicles in the Fal gap. The correspondent the Germans are packing men and material into Red Cross transports.