Americans in Vicinity of Laon

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 207, 1 September 1944, Page 5

Americans in Vicinity of Laon

LONDON, Aug. SO. Earlier messages stated that the Allied troops were not yet in Rouen, says a correspondent at Supreme Headquarters. “We have pushed on,” he says, “to a point five miles northeast of Rouen in the region of BlalnvilleCrevon. Further advances have been made up to Beauvais. ■ ’ The opposition was patchy and isolated pockets of resistance were bypassed. Another spearhead has reached Goumay, 45 miles southeast of Dieppe. The Pirst Army to-day took 1466 prisoners.”

Americans from the Aisne bridgehead have reached a point SOOO yards southward of Laon and 36 miles from Belgium, according to the Associated Press's correspondent at Shaef. General Patton’s Third Army has reached a point 10 miles southeast of Laon. The American bridgehead across the Seine at Mantes-Gassicourt has doubled In size in the last 24 hours. The British have advanced 20 miles from the Vernon bridgehead to Longchamps. General Patton’s troops liberated Rheims without a Bhot being fired and are pushing the Germans beyond the city through the last war’s Hindenburg Line, says the Associated Press. Rheims Cathedral is undamaged. The Allies cn the Lower Seine are flve miles northeast of Rouen at BlainviUe, says Shaef. All four Lower Seine bridgeheads are linked up into ono from which the British and Canadian forces reached Beauvais and Goumey and pushed north from Beauvais to MarselUe-en-Beauvais. The cathedral city of Beauvais is the junction of 10 main roads, including a road northward to Abbeville, Boulogne and Calais, also a road to Amiens and Compiegne, which is on the main line to Brussels. Beauvais has a good airfield and was one of the flying-bomb depots. First United States Army tanks have crossed the Marne at several points and advanced northeastward on both sides of the Ourcq Canal. Several enemy pockets northwest of Paris have been mopped np, Shaef adds. It is stated at Shaef that six accredited correspondents have been suspended and ordered to London for further Investigation. They allegedly filed press copy In Paris without submission to the censorship, thereby violating the regulations.