BOLD MONTGOMERY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 88, Issue 202, 24 August 1944, Page 5

BOLD MONTGOMERY

AUDACIOUFSTRATEGY GERMAN DRIVE AT SEDAN NOW SECOND CLASS

Recd. 7.30 p.m. . London, Aug. 23. In audacity General Montgomery’s strategy has left the German drive at Sedan in 1940 as historically secondclass, says the military correspondent of the Yorkshire Post. He adds: “The whole Army is talking of General Montgomery's strategy in drawing the enemy’s strength into Normandy, wearing it down in close combat, and then launching an armoured drive on the right which turned the Paris flank.” When Sertorius, German radio commentator, said that the Allies' intention was to herd the 7th Army forces together at the mouth of the Seine and added: "This is producing a situation fraught with many risks for the Germans,” he probably had in mind what has now become ft question of the gravest importance for the enemy High Command and one of considerable interest for Allied leaders. It is the question whether the Germans should attempt to bring troops from the Pas de Calais area across the Somme to aid those elements of the 15th Army who, on the right bank of the Seine, are now ‘receiving” remnants of the Seventh Army which have managed to struggle across the river. It is believed that without such reinforcements the Germans can hardly hope seriously to defend the stretch of Channel coast which includes Le Havre, Fecamp and Dieppe. “On the other hand, one of the last things the Germans would wish to do is to weaken the defence of the Pas de Calais area and reduce the garrisons around the flying bomb sites which count so importantly in Nazi propaganda.”