HOLDING PORTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25086, 27 December 1944, Page 5

HOLDING PORTS

ISOLATED NAZI POCKETS LORIENT AND ST. NAZAIRE LONDON, Dec. '25 While a flitter battle is raging in Belgium and Luxemburg another battle in a milder form is taking place on the Atlantic coast, where the Germans hold two pockets around the important harbours of St. Nazairo and I,orient. At Lorient there are about 30.000 German troops well armed with naval guns dismounted from warships, field guns, mortars and anti-aircraft guns. In spite of much damage by H.A.F. bombings, it is believed that some U-boats are still operating from Lorient. Supplies come Chiefly from submarines and also from some merchant ships, which occasionally succeed in running the blockade.

Both at St. Nazaire and Lorient the German pockets are loosely encircled by French troops and a few American battalions. The battle is mainly of a sniping and skirmishing character, yet some sharp encounters have taken place in both areas, each of which has an airfield. Air activity, however, is very limited. Other pockets on tho Atlantic coast are La Rochelle, where there are 18,000 Germans; lloyan, at the mouth of the Gironde, with 12,000; and Pointe de Grave, where 6000 Germans are blocking the port of Bordeaux.

NAZI PRISONERS ESCAPE

(Herd. o.lft p.m.) NEW \ORK, Dec. "26 Staging a mass break during a rainstorm. 25 German prisoners, mostlyofficers. escaped from Papagor Park prison. Centra! Arizona. Six of them have been recaptured. The camp commander said the combination of the Christmas spirit and elation at von Rundstedt s success led to the.break, ;