45,000 Prisoners Taken m South France

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

45,000 Prisoners Taken m South France

TREMENDOUS TOLL OF FLEEING GERMANS Received Thursday, 1.6 a.m. LONDON, Aug. 30. A tremendous toll is being taken of the fleeing Germans of the Nineteenth Army trying to escape northward up the Rhone Valley, says Reuter’s correspondent at Allied Headquarters in the Mediterranean. The Americans to-day battered them along the 20-mile front in the Montelimar area. The Germans are struggling through a grim gauntlet of American armour, Maquis and strafing dive-bombers. The fighting to-day reached its climax of ferocity in the vicinity of Loriol. The Germans, with bridges missing, desperately attempted to throw pontoons across the Drome to accommodate their long and straggling columns of fleeing men and equipment. The divisional commander captured was Major-General Otto Richter, commanding the 198tb Infantry Division, which was recently moved to the south of France after being badly mauled in Russia. He is the sixth German general captured in South France. Vice-Admiral Ruhfus, commanding Toulon, surrendered to the French. The area liberated in Southern France now firmly in Allied hands is estimated at over 20,000 square miles. The Americans near the Italian frontier are consolidating along the west bank of the Var, but further north they were forced from Briancon which was occupied last week. “Americans of the Seventh Army inflicted heavy losses on the enemy forces in the Rhone Valley north of Montelimar where fighting continues,” states an Allied communique. “We occupied Montelimar, Valreas, Grane and Allex. “Fighting is now progressing to the north where the withdrawing enemy troops have been trying to cross the Drome River. Approximately 800 loaded motor trucks and two batteries of 88millimetre guns were captured in two days in this area while another German divisional commander was taken prisoner. Forward elements of the French forces west of the Rhone reached Bagnols. American troops on the eastern flank are consoldiating their positions on the west hank of the Var. “Additional prisoners taken in the Marseiiles-Toulon area and the Rhone Valley increased the total to approximately 45,000. ’ ’