BIGGEST BATTLE SO FAR

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVI, Issue 22934, 3 July 1944, Page 5

BIGGEST BATTLE SO FAR

Rommel’s Tactics Suit Allies General Dempsey Very Confident By Telegraph—N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright LONDON, June 30. “I am completely confident about the present situation,” said the Commander of the Second Army (Lieutenant-General M. C. Dempsey) when giving his first Press conference on the Tilly-Caen front. "We are ready for the enemy and prepared to meet him. We are well disposed and properly balanced, while the enemy’s communications are in a very dicky state. He may fight here or fall back where his communications are better. ‘■We have taken prisoners in the last 24 hours from fresh forces which the enemy is rushing up to stop us. It has been established that German troops from the Russian front are fighting on the Normandy front. “The British staff believe that Rommel has arrived on the battlefield,” states the correspondent of the “Daily Express,” at 21st Army Headquarters. “They state that the behaviour of the Germans in the last two days leads to this belief. Their reaction to the British thrust across the River Odon has been impetuous and headstrong—in true Rommel style. “The British intelligence now reports that all the German panzer divisions in Normandy have been drawn into the battle. Rommel is taking every unit that arrives, and throwing it in immediately, which suits us very well. This is the biggest battle in Normandy so far. The Germans have at least seven armoured divisions pushed against us. All are mixed up and incomplete." Fierce Assault i Tire Berlin radio’s war reporter to-night stated that the British were beginning a fierce assault along one of the roads leading to Caen. “Our S.S. Division, which is facing a grim enemy, has already stood up to a withering artillery barrage,” he states. “Two tank divisions are assaulting our positions from the south on one small sector, while 30 artillery batteries hammer our forces. The enemy is also preparing another attack from the east. At present he is laying down a huge artillery barrage east of the Orne. The enemy is still landing substantial reinforcements, and is thrusting savagely to the south-west. The Germans, wherever they are ordered to counter-attack, are meeting an annihilating enemy fire from tanks, machine-guns, and artillery. The enemy has rushed strong forces from the Cherbourg area toward St. Lo, where he is ready to launch a grand assault.”

A German spokesman told neutral correspondents in Berlin: “We are engaged in reorganising the whole distribution of our forces in the light of the fury of the great attacks being directed against our armies from three directions. We must be content to fight vigorous holding-down actions until the reorganisation is accomplished.’’ Enemy Throws in Reserves “The Allied force, driving their salient toward the Orne River, in the Caen sector, have compelled the enemy to throw in strong armoured reserves in an effort to halt our advance,” states an Allied communique. “In spite of repeated counterattacks by these formations, our positions have not only been held, but improved. Farther west ground has been gained near St. Jean de Daye. Resistance in the Cap de la Hague area of the Cherbourg Peninsula has continued, “The weather severely restricted air operations between midnight and midmorning, but Improving conditions over the battle area and to the southward permitted the Allied forces to complete some 1000 sorties by the early afternoon. Flying through clouds or below ceilings, small forces of medium bombers, before dawn, attacked the main thoroughfare which the enemy is using in the Villers Bocage area. From the first light fighter-bombers and fighters, based both on Britain and Normandy, harassed enemy movements in the area bounded by Dreux, Chartres, Alencon, and Argentan, and carried out a reconnaissance as far south as Tours. Small forces of medium bombers attacked road and rail junctions between Meziden and Falalse. Fighter-bombers hit large warehouses at Arville and an important bridge at Beaugency, as well as railway lines and machine-gun emplacements in the Orleans area. One of our fighters is missing." It was learned at Allied Headquarters that the Germans in their counter-attack on Thursday used three infantry battalions and about 30 tanks, 12 of which were destroyed. The slight advance near St. Jean de Daye mentioned in the communique appears to be a line-shortening move by the Americans, bringing them a little nearer St. Lo. Initiative with British

It was learned at Allied Headquarters that the news from France is scanty, which indicates that the battle on the Odon River in the Ca?n is still fierce and undecided. There has been heavy fighting north of Caen with no report so far of any appreciable change. Until the Germans can hold the Allies stationary at all points their much forecast major counteroffensive is unlikely to begin. The whole British and Canadian sector is at present active, with the initiative everywhere in General Sir Bernard Montgomery’s hands. The British in the Caen area, in repelling the counter-attacks, inflicted heavy casualties on the Germans and improved their positions. The crossing of the Odon River is now a definite salient and a reasonably firm bridgehead.

The situation is described as “more than highly satisfactory, but it is too early to speak of any kind of a majosuccess.” Continued German counterattacks in increasing strength are probable.

General Montgomery, punching the enemy first at one point and then at another, is forcing the Germans to patch up the holes in their defences with troops who were meant for an attack. Fresh German reinforcements in the Odon bridgehead fighting hav» been identified as infantry from armoured divisions, which are therefore disorganised as a fighting force. U.S. Peninsula Offensive The Official German News Agency states that two divisions of Americans this morning launched an all-out offensive against the north-west Up of the Cherbourg Peninsula and penetrated the German defences at several points. They drove strong tank wedges in two directions and reached Jobour" (just south of Auderville). The correspondent of the Associated Press at Cherbourg states that an American staff officer disclosed tha’f the Allies, since D Day, have killed or captured the equivalent of six full German divisions. The Americans alone captured more than 38,000 and killed 10,000. The total number of prisoners is likely to exceed 40,000 when the Cap de la Hague area, is cleared