STILL FIGHTING HARD

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 17 August 1944, Page 5

STILL FIGHTING HARD

GERMAN SEVENTH ARMY Falaise-Conde Pocket

(Rec. fO a.m.) London, Aug 1 6. The German Seventh Army Is still fighting hard in the FalaiseConde pocket, according to a correspondent at Allied Headquarters. This rearguard fighting has prevented any very rapid advance but there are indications of disorganisation among enemy troops. Prisoners have been taken on sectors miles away from where their divisions were fighting. At least one German division suffered ver heavy casualties amounting to nearly 2000 killed and taken prisoners. A substantial advance from the north-west reached St. Pierre Dapou, five miles north-west of F lers. The Conde-Falaise road has been cut south of Bois du Roi, south-west of Falaise. There was strong resistance in the vicinity of Ranes, south-west of Argentan. In a surprise attack from north-west last night Canadian troops fought their way into the outskirts of Falaise, reports Reuter's Normandy correspondent. The Germans launched Several counter-attacks, one by infantry supported by tanks in a vain effort to stave off the loss of the city. The bulk of the fighting during the night was west of the main Caen-Falaise road with the Canadians battling their way in a south-easterly direction towards the city. Falaise is now completei* written off as a German escape route —all its roads are either cut by the Canadians or dominated by Canadian troops of the Second British Army. The German pocket in Normandy is about 25 miles long east to west, and continues to shrink. The escape gap is definitely known to be less than I 0 miles across, but is reported to have been considerably narrowed. Flers is the only large town left to the Germans inside the gap.

GERMAN RETREAT

The German retreat in Normandy is no longer being conducted according to plan. It is now just “get out —if you can.” a British staff officer told the correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain at forward headquarters on the Falaise front on Wednesday. The correspondent stated that the Germans are still left in a cauldron so mixed up that no fewer than 12 units were identified in one small area. British infantry found Tigers and Panthers abandoned and undamaged. Tanks had run out of petrol but otherwise were in perfect order. The Germans left in such a hurry that they even neglected to spike their guus. The change from a more or less orderly withdrawal to a pellmell retreat was observed on some sectors late on Wednesday. particularly in the area northwest of Falaise. Remnants of German infantry divisions tinder orders to hold the “roof” over Fciaise at all costs were so badly mauled that their lines were broken into fragments and survivors’ began a headlong flight. A British Field Headquarters spokesman said that this division could to all intents and purposes be written off. The spokesman added that even those divisions which had escaped are in j great confusion and all mixed up. i Some of their units are scattered over | the countryside and lost with both | transport and tanks running short of! fuel. Germans inside the sack are get ting out as fast as they can. No reinforcements are arriving. Most of von Kluge’s armour is believed to have escaped from the Falaise pocket, states Reuter’s correspondent. Fighting is now going on in the town but the bulk of. the German armour is already east of the town. FEAT OF ENDURANCE The British United Press correspondent said the march to Falaise was a feat of endurance by infantry who in pitch darkness and driving rain switched back over craters and shell holes along the main road and reached the outskirts with the first light of morning on Wednesday. Our bombing had wiped out hamlets, turned the landscape upside down, uprooted whole! woods and thrown them over what once were roads.- Falaise itself suffered the fate of a besieged town. Its houses and streets are reeking with ruins. A Canadian major said: “Our troops marched for days. We fought a two-day battle and moved back. Then at 8 a.m. yesterday we moved off again and when we reached the outskirts of Falaise we had covered 10 miles.” FRENCH FORCES OF INTERIOR General Koenig, Commander of the French Forces of the Interior, in a communique says an armoured F.F.I. detachment has taken part in battle for the first time and occupied Erdeven in Brittany, killing 65 Germans and iaking 140 prisoners. Saboteurs have completely destroyed a German munition dump in the Department of Indre-et-Loire. Throughout tne whole of France F.F.I. in accordance with orders are giving the enemy no rest. GAP AS GOOD AS CLOSED Nothing seen since the break-through compares with the scenes in the Normandy pocket, says the “New York. Times” correspondent with the First United States Army. The pocket is roughly 1000 square miles of destruction. The escape corridor is now as good as closed and the pocket may be considered sealed. This battle has been won, though fighting continues at some points around the periphery of the pocket. The general order under which the battle was ' rnght was “find, fix and destroy the enemy.” The enemy has been found as far as possible and fixed. Now it is a matter of destroying him. That process has progressed so far that it can now be said that the Seventh German Army has ceased to exist as a fighting force. The estimated number of Germans in the pocket originally and the number escaped vary. Perhaps as few as 15.000 live Germans remain. Those who escaped must be even more disorganised than those remaining. It is hard to see how they can be restored to much military usefulness before the swift Allied tide sweeps on far beyond them. ON OUTSKIRTS OF FALAISE “Allied troops are in the outskirts of Falaise and dominate communications , in this area,” says a SHAEF commu- ; nique to-day. “Our forces all along the i northern flanks of the enemy pockets | are driving steadily forward despite at- j tempts to delay us by mines and booby ! traps. The villages of Cossessevillc and ; Treprei, between the Orne and the | Laize. have been taken. Conde was by- i passed by a thrust across the river < Noireau a few miles east of the town. ' Tincbebray has been captured. Our i troops along the western and southern | flanks of the pocket also advanced gen- j erally. Domfront. G?r and La Fertemace have been freed. Our forces entered Yvrandes. three miles south of Tinchebray. Other units further east are pushing northward beyond Ranes, where strong enemy opposition is being met. Mopping-up operations are proceeding south-east of Ranes and in Iht vicinity of Alencon against enemy 1 groups cut off by the advance northward. In Argentan we hold a portion , of the city. Enemy resistance is stubborn. In Brittaijy the citadel of .St. Malo continues to hold out. Organised resistance has ceased at Dinavd. No changes are reported from Brest or Lorient.” .