“ Birds of Ill Omen ” Appear in France

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 206, 31 August 1944, Page 5

“ Birds of 11l Omen ” Appear in France

ESCAPE PLANES FOR GERMAN OFFICERS Received Wednesday, 7.15 p.m. LONDON, Aug. 30. Junkers 52 air transports—“birds of ill omen” —are appearing on the German airfields in France and the Low Countries, says Colin Bednall, the Daily Mail's air correspondent. “Since the first retreat of the Afrika Korps in North Africa these planes have always been a sure sign of belated German efforts to cut their losses and withdraw,” adds Bednall. ‘‘They appeared in the final stages of Stalingrad, Tunisia and Sicily. This time there are fewer planes than ever before and favoured staff officers waiting to escape In them know it is the last withdrawal they will ever make. “All the German Air Force units have been retreating for some time and foreign service fighters are going hack to bases previously used exclusively for the home defence of Germany. The morale of these units sank rapidly recently and the German High Command will not relish the prospect of bringing them in contact with the home defence units. To make room Stor the retreating fighters the surviving German bomber units in most cases have moved back deep into Germany.” BRITISH ARMOUR GETS ITS CHANCE Forward troops on the Canadian sector on the north front have reached a point two miles from the outskirts of Rouen. Reuter’s correspondent in Normandy says that this is the fastest British drive and the first major exploitation since D Day of British armour. The tanks can be counted in squadrons. They are crossing the Seine by bridges at the rate of one per minute. A British general told the correspondent: “This is not an encircling movement. It is a penetration. ’ ’ The Associated Press’s correspondent with the British forces said that four hours after the tank spearheads left the bridgehead at Vernon they flashed hack a message: “We are going on. It is a picnic. ’ ’ The correspondent added that the German defences so far met beyond the Seine are reported to be flimsy and the enemy is fleeing headlong. “One more kilometre, one less flyingbomb ’ ’ is the slogan contained in an order to-day from a senior British general to his men streaming across the 3eine at the bridgehead of Vernon. The general, whom Reuter’s correspondent described as one of the battle-winning Desert generals, said to the British Second Army: “For the first time in this war we are fighting directly to free our homes, wives and children from German attacks. Every yard we advance reduces the area from which he can launch secret weapons. If everyone goes all out our families will shortly again he able to sleep peacefully and our casualties since the landing in Normandy will not have been vainly suffered.”