350,000 Germons Cut Off From Homeland

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 210, 5 September 1944, Page 5

350,000 Germons Cut Off From Homeland

VAST SACK IN FRANCE AND LOW COUNTRIES

LONDON, Sept. 3. More vital for the moment than the actual invasion of Germany is the fact that the Allies, by their astonishing advances, have sealed off the entrance., to the Reich from Western Europe, prevented the escape of perhaps 350,U0u combatant troops, and a great many more ancillary troops, says the Daily Express’s military writer. To-night’s news confirms that all the main roads and railways between Aachen and well south of Strasbourg bave been cut at points very noat Germany, leaving a vast sack around Northern France, Belgium and Holland. The magnitude of this disaster cau more readily be understood when it is remembered that to cover the 500-mile long West Wall the enemy, it is believed, has not more than seven divisions of fighting troops, in which there are about 100,000 men and no armour at all. It means that Germany is now at the mercy of General Eisenhower’s armies. The Siegfried Line defences, even if they were in first-class condition, which they are not, could not do more than delay us for a short period. The prepared fortifications on the Belgian and Dutch frontier are sparse. Far to the southward, near the Swiss frontier, conditions are similar. The Allies will not necessarily rush at once into Germany. They may allow a day or two to build up supply lines and service and refuel the hundreds of tanks that are poised ready near Hitler's frontier. The pause will not be long. ENEMY QUITS FAS DE CALAIS The Germans are quitting the Fas de Calais to-day in the path ot the advancing Canadians, and with the onrushing British troops threatening to sever their lines of retreat masses of German transport are pouring out of Boulogne, says Reuter’s correspondent with the First Canadian Army. There is vast movement on all the roads leading eastward and southeastward from the Fas de Calais. The Canadians who are now all along the lower reaches of the Somme are held up momentarily as the Germans have blown up all the bridges. Canadian elements are engaged in a skirmish againßt German elements still in Abbeville. A number of flying-bomb sites which have been overrun in the advance along the coast from Dieppe are all dismantled and only the concrete foundations remain. It is disclosed that the First Canadian Army forces between August 8 and August 31 took 25,776 prisoners. The roll of gunfire coming from the direction of the Abbeville area was heard in the Folkstone district this evening. It was continuous for some time, suggesting that a battle was progressing. Explosions at Boulogne indicate that the Germans are withdrawing, says Reuter’s correspondent with the Tactical Air Force. The Allied air forces are heavily attacking transport from Boulogne. A senior K.A.F. officer said: If the Germans pull out of Boulogne, Calais will fall. Also, this would mean that the whole of the flying-bomb coast of France, in which there are about 200 flying-bomb sites in a belt of 10 to 15 miles from the coast will be lost to the Germans. The Germans are at present making no effort to throw up a definite battle line, says the Daily Express’s correspondent in France (Mr. A. Moore nead. It seems clear that the Germans decided to abandon general resistance until they reach their own side of the Rhine, although fierce fighting is expected around flying-bomb sites. With 20 or more Allied columns weaving across Eastern France, the whole country will soon be cleared of the organised enemy. It is possible now to drive from Paris to Switzerland. The Maquis are rounding up thousands of lost Germans, taking a dozen or more towns daily. The French are walking in and taking control behind the fleeing Germans. The same sort of confusion is beginning in Belgium behind the main German resistance. In response to an urgent request from General Patton, ten tons of maps of Germany were dropped to him by parachute last night. The German High Command is quoted by the Berlin radio as saying that the withdrawals in the southwest and south of France have speeded up as the result of the Allied progress in Northern France.