Late War News PORT DEFENCES Attack By Allied

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 227, 22 June 1944, Page 6

Late War News PORT DEFENCES Attack By Allied

Forces CHERBOURG FIGHT

(By Telegraph.—Press i (Received June 21, 11-55 p.m.) LONDON, June 21. “Allied troops advancing against Cherbourg have reached prepared positions defending the deep-water port,’ says today's Allied communique. “Aalognes, Les Pioux, Couvllle and Rauville la Bigot have been liberated. Hired German attacks have been held in the Tilly area. Active patrolling was carried out on all other sectors of the front. “Piltftless bomber sites in the Bas de Calais, a coastal battery at Houlgate, and gun positions on the Cherbourg Peninsula, were targets yesterday and last evening for medium and ngnterbombers. Other fighter-bombers struck against locomotives, troop trams, and railway installations in widespread areas of northern France. Preliminary reports show that 11 enemy plants were destroyed. Four of ours are missin o . Light bombers last night attacked the railway centres of Mezidon and Chartres, and other enemy communications. Wgnc fighters destroyed two .enemy An American jeep driver and a lieutenant captured Valognes and 40 Germans without unslinging their carbines, reports Reuter’s Normandy correspondent. There was not a shot and hardly a sign of life when they entered the town. It was eerie-as the tomb. The town is :i sea of wreckage, easily the worst mauled vet encountered in France. I here is not a building that has not been hit. Most of them are mere gaping holes where block-busters have landed. There is one part of the principal street where neither buildings nor street exist, but just a series of great bomb-craters. No one knows how many civilians are lle ni e bulk of the American forces on the northern part of the Coptentm Peninsula, appear to be massing for ap assault. against the fortress of Cherbourg, says the German overseas news agency. No fighting contact has yet been made with the German defenders of Cherbourg. The Americans are merely fighting German rearguards who, according to orders, are only fighting a delaying action while gradually falling back on the outer defence zone of the fortress. Low black clouds raced across .the skv of the Straits of Dover at daybreak and with a gusty wind still blowing as unpleasantly as ever, conditions were more in tune with January than the longest day of the year. There was no change in the rough sea conditions. No Tank Heavier Than Tiger. The Normandy campaign has shown that in spite of technical superiority or equality in most weapons, the Allies nave not put into the field heavier tanks than the Germans, says Reuter’s correspondent at British headquarters in France, The German Tiger has very heavy armour in front and carries a terrific punch with its 88-millimetre gun. The German Panther is heavily armoured and beautifully shaped. It. must be hit at an angle of under 30 degrees to get penetration. This is most difficult because of the cleverlysloped front. ■ . British tanks, generally are equipped with 75’s. Tank battles are occurring, but so far only on a small scale, each side using tanks to support infantry. ' The problem of taking care of enemy tanks is left mostly to anti-tank crews. The counter to the enemy's formidable armour is to produce more of it and handle it wisely. The enemy already is far outnumbered in tanks, and Allied tank crews are learning quickly to adapt themselves to the countryside and to take advantage of covey in such a way as to avoid out-and-out slogging matches.

WEARING THIN German Wall Against British Forces (Received June 22, 1.30 a.m.) LONDON, June 21. "The German wall of men and armour round the Allied beach-head is wearing desperately thin,” says Reuter’s correspondent with the British forces in France. “The German situation round Cherbourg is rapidly developing in our favour, and the Allied strength is being built up steadily. ‘ "Rommel is in the unenviable position of having to hold an enemy of growing power with his own forces dwindling. The Allied position is now regarded as promising. . "The Germans are facing the British front strained to the limit, and their conditions are terrible. The most activity is occurring round Caen, where the enemy is being squeezed out east and west of the town. In the attempt to guard his flanks his position here is now thinly held. It is learned at the headquarters that very heavy fighting is going on round Hotot, and the position is obscure. British troops captured the village of Onchy, 3J miles south-west of Tilly. Couville, mentioned in the communique, is eight miles north-east of Les Pieux, and Rauville-la-Bigot is 84 miles southwest of Cherbourg.