FULL RETREAT

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 24972, 15 August 1944, Page 5

FULL RETREAT

SCENES IN DAYLIGHT TRAFFIC JAMS ROADS ALLIED AIR ASSAULTS (Reed. 7.30 p.m.) LONDON, Aug. 14 The German retreat from the 30mile bulge west of the Orne River is in full swing, thus conceding the biggest German defeat since D Day, Bays the Associated Press correspondent in Normandy. German troops, transport and tanks, caught between British and American fire on both flanks and under terrific assaults from the air, are heading east in daylight. The crisis heightens hourly. A British staff officer said: "It is a big fighting withdrawal. Their army is swinging eastward and there is no telling where it will stop or what a terrible price it will have to pay. It will be slaughtered all the way to the narrow exit from the Falaise gap." Another officer said: "The revolution in German strategy in the last 48 hours may produce results of dimensions which the Russians will understand."

Broken German Army A broken German army, which is fleeing eastward in headlong retreat from the narrowing Falaise-Mortain pocket, is being savagely attneked from the air, states Renter's correspondent on the British front. More than 100,000 men and several hundred tanks are competing in a chaotic scramble to get through the exit where the massive Allied jaws are threatening to close soon. Allied planes all day long have cascaded bomb.s on enemy columns jamming the roads lsading eastward. The Germans are leaving behind screens of artillery and panzer troops as a sort of super rearguard force. Congestion on Roads The correspondent says that von Kluge seems to have taken the suicidal decision to retreat in daylight, thus exposing his disorganised units to the violcuce ot the Allied bomber and fighter pilots. Chaos has been heaped on confusion as the result of a two-way movement on the hopelessly congested roads, because von Kluge, while his army withdraws, is trying to feed replacements and supplies to the force which is staying behind. Renter's correspondent in Normandy reports that Allied planes yesterday destroyed or damaged 44 German tanks and 28.'J transport vehicles in the i'nlaise-Argentan gap. The correspondent adds that the Germans are packing men and material into Red Cross transports and are also putting Red Crosses on other vehicles. Marauder and Havoc Attacks .Full-scale support for the great Allied pincer movement was delivered yesterday morning by American Marauders and Ha vocs in a series of closely-co-ordi-nated attacks on highways and road junctions from Lisieux south-east to Laigle. Eighteen waves of from 15 to 18 planes attacked roads leading into Lisieux, Bernay and Rugles, between 10.15 a.m. and 11.15 a.m., in an effort to render impassable all escape routes leading east. None of our airCraft is missing. A surprise attack was made by roeketnring Typhoons on a concentration of German armour and motor transport lined up in a village and on roads south-east of Falaise. The Typhoons destroyed seven tanks and 21 motor Vehicles, LATEST COMMUNIQUE INDICATIONS of progress (Ben). 12.10 a.m.) LONDON, Auff. I-I A 4 urt her progress has been made es t ot the Orne River, stales today's communique from Supreme HeadQuarters. The advance was continued south of St. Pierre Lavielle along the "'gh ground to Conde. We gained ground south-east of Vire in lieavv fcgnting, Further south, toward Mortain, our wees, following up the German withdrawal encountered mines and longrange artillerv fire. In Brittany, the Allied attack against Btnard continues to meet strong resistance. Remnants of the German garrison at St. Main still hold out in the citadel. Our units made slight advances the.yicinity of Brest. There is no Cuatige in the situation at Lorient.