PURSUIT BEGINS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 24969, 11 August 1944, Page 5

PURSUIT BEGINS

OKNE BREAK-OUT GERMANS RETIRING SOUTH (Reed G.-tO i>.m.) LOXDON, Aup. 10 The British troops on the bridgehead across the Orne north of Thury Harcourt are on the offensive after beating one counter-attack after another until the Germans were advancing over their own dead, says Reuter's correspondent on the Orne front. The British troops, supported, and in some places led, by tanks are chasing hard upon the heels of the defeated German units, which are pulling back through the Grimbosq Forest and south-! ward toward Thury Harcourt. Von Kluge hurled in some of his best infantry and armour nine times against the .'W)-acre bridgehead, but at midnight on Tuesday gave up tlie attempt. British artillery and mortars yesterday opened up a cannonade and our tanks swung in to the pursuit. In the area between Vire and Mortnin the Germans are still concentrated in what a high American staff officer described as a strong force, supported by at least four panzer divisions.