ABOUT TO START

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25562, 15 June 1944, Page 5

ABOUT TO START

SIEGE OF CHERBOURG AMERICANS 10 MILES AWAY LONDON, June 13. The siege of the great naval port of Cherbourg is presumably about to start, says the Daily Express military writer, Mr Morley Richards. American patrols were last reported less than 10 miles from the port. Rommel has also failed to stop Allied penetration inland from the bridgehead. Last night it had reached 18 miles inland. Allied leaders uia think we could advance so far in the general strategic set-up in that time. General Montgomery has made the enemy commit his tactical reserves in one group instead of as a cohesive force. Strategic reserves are still not in action. This is the result of savage Allied air force attacks on German communications and it is possible that the Germans have not been able to concentrate enough reserves to mount a full counter-attack. This does not mean that the counterattack will not come. It must come sooner or later, or the enemy will have to confess to defeat in North-west France.

The longer Rommel delays the weaker his chance of success becomes. It is an eminently satisfactory position. Rommel is being outwitted, and his superior, von Rundstedt, clearly cannot make up his mind if this is the main Allied landing. In the west the fall of Montebourg implies that the Allies are directly advancing towards Valognes on the main read to Cherbourg, 10 miles away. The capture of Le Ham, three miles southwest of Montebourg, indicates further progress towards the cutting off of the Cherbourg Peninsula.

Unloading conditions have improved on all the beaches.

The Allies are now operating from five air landing strips, and use was made of these in last night's operations. Three E-boats were destroyed, three damaged, and another hit to-day by Typhoon fighters and rocket-project-ing aircraft. Allied aircraft suffered no loss.

The enemy has made very few efforts to construct emergency bridges over the Seine in place of those destroyed by Allied bombers.

A later message states that heavy rain fell in the Straits of Dover early in the afternoon. There was poor visibility, a freshening southerly wind, and choppy seas. The barometer has fallen. FRENCH PATRIOTS COMMUNICATIONS SABOTAGED RESULTS ABOVE EXPECTATIONS (Rec. 9.30 p.m.) LONDON, June 13. The Algiers radio says French forces of the interior in certain sectors interrupted enemy communication lines and inflicted delays on troop movements which were above expectations. These operations contributed to the succeso of the first phase of the invasion. Groups of patriots, particularly in the Alps, the Vosges, Jura, the Pyrenees, and Brittany, attacked convoys, small garrisons, arms depots and power installations.

The Maquis entirely control Tarbes, the capital of the Haute Pyrenees, which has a population of 28,000, says the Associated Press correspondent at Irun (Spain). They captured the city after brief and bitter fighting on June 10 and 11, in which the population sided with them against the German garrison. Three hundred Germans were taken prisoner.