BOLD STROKE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25561, 14 June 1944, Page 5

BOLD STROKE

INVASION OF NORMANDY GERMANS LULLED TO SLEEP (N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent) LONDON, June 12. “A miracle of combined operations” is the.description given by Mr J. L. Garvin to the landing in France. He expresses the opinion that the Germans never contemplated that the Allies would dare Attack in the very piece they did. "There, where they thought themselves impregnably strong, the Germans seemed to have been lulled to steep,” he says. “ How events amazed the enemy at the outset let one of their best commentators explain. What was the first reaction of Captain Sertorius? ‘This is the stretch of coast nearest Paris, not only as the crow flies, but also as far as strategic lines of communication are concerned. Here the fortifications of the Atlantic Wall, in strength and depth, easily beat all records.’ This shows how the Wehrmaclit never conceived that the Western Allies would act simply and potently on Nelson’s maxim of ‘the boldest strokes are the safest..’ ”

The Daily Telegraph’s commentator, Lieutenant-general H. G. Martin, says: “The weather has at last improved. The glass is rising. Airstrips are now in use in Normandy for refuelling fighters.” He adds that the Allies are now in contact on a front of about 50 miles from Saint Mere Eglise, to the east bank of the Orne, north-east of Caen, attaining their greatest depth, 11 miles, at Tilly. “ Von Rundstedt’s tactics are obviously to hold on to the road centres of Caen, Saint Lo, Carentan, and Valognes, thus constricting the Allied bridgehead until such time as he is ready to begin that series of major operations by which he will seek to dismember it.” Lieutenant-general Martin continues: “General Eisenhower is rather short of elbow room for the handling of the forces he will need for a battle on such a scale. It is the penalty which we have to pay for the adverse weather.” Captain Liddell Hart, in the Daily Mail, says: “The Allies have achieved the first two critical stages of the invasion. The third is now in development. The broad results of the landing may be summed up as fair to good; not as good as is desired, but much better than they might have turned out. They would be definitely good if the measure of success on the west flank had matched that elsewhere. It can be seen that Caen is the key-point in the design. As the focus of communications astride the River Orne, it forms both a shield against any counter-move from the east and a strategic spearpoint for our own offensive aims. If it could have been seized at the outset the gain would have been of far-reach-ing promise. The airborne forces offered a means of seizing it or at least of isolating place while it was being stormed, Here we met with disappointment despite the initial success of our air landings. The enemy still maintains his grip of this key-point.” The Daily Mail’s air correspondent, commenting on the fact that not a single air attack has been made on the jammed ports of Britain since the invasion began, says: “There'is no riddle of the Luftwaffe, nor is there anything very surprising about its reaction. The facts are that the entire Luftwaffe today is probably not as great as the Mediterranean Air Force alone, certainly not as great as the Red Air Force alone, and less than one-third as great as the Anglo-American forces based on Britain alone. The German Air Force of 1944 is a compact, well-equipped defensive force, able to fight effectively on. just one front, and that front, as will be shown in the future, is the home front of Germany.”