BATTLE FOR TOULON

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 88, Issue 200, 22 August 1944, Page 5

BATTLE FOR TOULON

RESISTANCE IS GROWING Recd. 11.30 p.m. London, Aug. 21. Stiffer opposition is being met with as Allied troops close in on the great naval base of Toulon, in southern France. They were last reported three miles away, and driving for the main escape road. Allied forces, on the eastern, sector of the frontier in the South of France, have reached the Durance River.

Recd. 11.55 p.m. London, Aug. 21. Troops o£ the 7th Army, maintaining the rapid pace of their advance in southern France, are now in the Durance River valley and fighting in the approaches to i onion against stilt opposition, says an Allied communique. French troops have reached a point three miles nortn of tne naval port and city and also well to the north-west are approaching Highway No. 8. American forward elements, after crossing the Durance, reinforced French Forces of the interior which surrounded an enemy force in Perluis. Other elements reached tne outskirts ot Aix en Prjvence. Pockets oi enemy resistance in some places have been by-passed. A number oi additional towns and villages have been liberated. Prisoners now total approximately 14,000. Columbia Broadcasting System’s Rome correspondent says the Germans are reported to have begun demolition work in Toulon harbour. The Telegraph. Exchange correspondent said that the envelopment of Marseilles and Toulon by French and American forces was proceeding rapidly against patchy, crumbling opposition. The Allies advanced more than 20 miles to reach the outskirts of Aix and cross the Durance River. Aix is an important road junction with seven roads, some oi which lead straight to the Rhone Valley. It is also the main escape route for the Germans in Marseilles and Toulon. This swift expansion of the bridgehead followed on quickly the entry of Allied tanks and armoured cars into Taians, 34 miles north-west of Toulon, also Barjols, 30 miles north of Toulon, and St. Maximin. French armour passing through St. Maximin reached flatter country, where the rapid rate of advance was still further accelerated as they turned west to encircle Toulon and Marseilles, which are the first objectives of this lightning campaign. The area captured since the landing on August 15 is now estimated at 2000 square miles. Our bombing line is nearly 70 miles inland and pilots say there is still no sign that the enemy has recovered his balance sufficiently for a major counterattack.

It was announced at Mediterranean headquarters yesterday that French patriots have surrounded the German garrison of Pertuis, north of Aix and above the Durance River. Algiers radio later said the Allies had captured Peyrollcs on the Durance River, 36 miles north of Marseilles, and that a French column had reached Hyeres, nine miles east of Toulon. It added that the Allies, were pouring in troops and material at a faster rate than for any previous amphibious operation. A German High Command report last night on the Riviera fighting stated: “The enemy, by driving his forces forward recklessly, has succeeded in expanding his bridgehead north-west and north of the Mauges Mountains. The Allies are figh’ing particularly heavily south of the Verdon River, which is the initial phase of ar. attempted envelopment of Toulon.”