STRONG RESISTANCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 June 1944, Page 3

STRONG RESISTANCE

AND DEADLY CROSS-FIRE MET ON SOME BEACHES. AMERICAN EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 9.15 a.m.) LONDON, June 7. The German Seventh and Fifteenth armies, under the personal command of Rommel, are hastening additional panzer and infantry divisions to the area where American and British troops have established bridgeheads, states an American correspondent aboard the flagship Augusta (the ship on which President Roosevelt and Mr Churchill signed the Atlantic Charter). The correspondent adds that Americans in one place, battling from landing craft and on beaches, are having the toughest opposition from the Germans, while others arc meeting savage opposition, though making faster headway. Lieutenant-General Homer Bradley, commander of the American ground, forces, who is aboard the flagship, admitted that battle difficulties and the heavy surf made the operations hazardous. Bert Brandt, a news photographer, in an eyewitness account, says the first assault troops storming the French beaches were mown down by German crossfire. Succeeding waves climbed over bodies until a foothold was established. Brandt said: “It was hotter than hell. I was at Anzio, but Anzio wasmothing like this. American casualties were heavy on some beaches and light on others. Ori one beach the enemy machine-gunners waited until the landing craft lowered their ramps and then poured in a deadly fire. Opposition met by the first wave delayed the landing of demolition parties scheduled to follow with heavy equipment. The German defences finally crumbled under the weight of attack. By 3 p.m. yesterday, when I left the beach-head, the Americans were firmly ashore and beginning to advance inland.”