SUICIDE STAND BY GERMANS

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 229, 24 June 1944, Page 7

SUICIDE STAND BY GERMANS

Cherbourg Battle GRIM STRUGGLE OF INFANTRY (Bv Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright.) (Received Jone 23, II.SO p.rn.) . LONDON, June 23 The final all-out American assault against the fortress of Cherbourg began at 2 p.m. yesterday. A sharp Geiroan counter-attack was repulsed and by nightfall some of General Bradley s engaged in fierce hand-to-hand fighting on the fringes of to " ‘ Reports this morning reveal that the Germans m Cherbourg are makhig a determined stand under constant bombardment f land and air. Both east and west! of the port the A J“ erl “ ns rt sight of the sea. Few, if any, Germans remain m the eastern part Of th "F P rlm n the a ‘report S of the resistance our spearheads are meeting it looks as though Cherbourg may be a tougher o Jjective than we imagined,” says the British United Press correspondent with the American forces. We seem once again to be up against the German suicide tactics, and it looks as if the last effective survivors ot the German army which once held the Cherbourg Peninsula are ready to obey Rommel’s call to hold out to the last man. ‘‘Cherbourg may require even more intensive bombing by day and night to pave the way for the infantry which has started yard-by-yard and house-by-house fighting m the advance against th port. zvvtxttxht

“As the rumble of the air and artillery bombardment died down I followed the fight more by sound than sight. Three dozen or more different actions were going on, with fighting blazing up amid villages and hamlets. There were odd, grim bursts of battle amid trees. Walls collapsed as guns rumbled, and machinegun bullets ripped through the streets. It is a grim, dour fight.” According to an earlier unconfirmed report today Americans were inside the eastern defence hne, which was apparently designed by the Germans for use against sea-borne attack. While picked shock troops were making a frontal attack from south and southeast one American force was besieging the Mauperts airport after cutting the Cher-bourg-St. Pierre Eglise highway. Due south of Cherbourg vicious hand-to-hand lighting was going on in the vicinity of Toilevast. The defences . here include concrete-lined tunnels, anti-tank ditches and six feet thick emplacements. The area is also heavily mined and wired. A correspondent said that Cherbourg was completely isolated, with the defenders facing annihilation or surrender. ' Yesterday General Bradley had pushed out patrols to Cap de la Hague, lo miles north-west of Cherbourg. Proceeding Satisfactorily. “Operations against the fortress of Cherbourg are proceeding satisfactorily, says today’s Allied communique. ’Offensive action and local effectively pinned down the enemy formations on the eastern sectors. “In preparation for our ground operations waves of fighter-bombers during the day and also at dusk yesterday atfacked the strongly-fortified German positions encircling Cherbourg. They went in often at pistol range to bomb forts, concrete pill-boxes, ammunition dumps, oilstores and troop concentrations. Medium bombers also participated. Our planes flew through intense ground fire.” A Reuter correspondent who flew in a United States plane over Cherbourg last evening says: “A great curtain of smoke and dust 24 'miles long was hanging over the Cherbourg coastal area. It has been probably the heaviest combined air and ground attack since the opening of the invasion. , „ • “We could see far below where the mj fantry will move through the last defences before the city. These fortifications were streaming with smoke and fire. Puffs of smoke still dotted the Cherbourg area as American artillery continued to hammer the enemy positions, though the Ninth Air Force attack, which lasted for 80 minutes earlier today, had ended. Highway 13, which enters the town from Valognes, was deserted, and not a single vehicle could be seen entering the city.”

Quick Repair Likely. The American Secretary of War, Mr. fitimspn, speaking in Washington, forecast quick rehabilitation of Cherbourg s port facilities to swell the flow of the invasion forces. He said the city had become a trap for elements of three Nazi divisions, which were demolishing the port; however, army and navy engineers had been previously confronted with problems of extraordinary wreckage and had brought order out of ruin in a comparatively short time. It is learned that the Allies now occupy about 980 square miles of Normandy. „ In the east the British and Canadians are still holdinc four panzer divisions. There is stiff fighting three miles cast ot Caen, where the Germans are up against Canadians in strength. The weather in the beach-head has unproved. and unloading has been resumed.

PRESSURE IN EAST Effect On Peninsula Battle

WASHINGTON, June 22. The striking advances, which gave the American forces possession of the entire neck of the Cherbourg Peninsula was largely due to the British and Canadian operations at the south-eastern end of the ■Normandy front, said the Secretary of War, Mr. Stimson, at a Press conference. The British and Canadians so engaged the enemv that he had no uncommitted strength to threaten the American corridor. . . . “A notable feature of the operations in Normandy,” said Mr. Stimson, “is that the enemy has not brought up such masses of reserves as would constitute a major counter-offensive. The enemy amassed a very sizeable army, but the newly-arriv-ed divisions have had to be conimitted piecemeal, in an- effort to contain the Allied forces. During this period we have been able to build up our own armies in a very strong fashion. Men and equipment, including heavy arms, have been landed on the beaches in an amazing volume. Gales over the Channel interfered at times, but the weather has not been a very serious impediment.”

SCANTY FUEL SUPPLY Jittery German Forces

(Received June 23, ll.uo p.m.) LONDON, June 23. Major-General Queseda, commander of the Ninth Air Force, told the New York “Herald-Tribune's” correspondent in Normandy that the enemy s fuel supply was so scanty that German ground forces were having a feud with the Luftwaffe and were even stealing fuel and other supplies from the hard-pressed German Air Force because the ground troops badly need petrol for mechanized units and were unable to get it through the wrecked transportation routes. .. General Queseda added that jitters had seized the. German ah’ and ground forces, each blaming the other for the Allied advance and fighting among themselves. As n result, the prestige of the Luftwaffe had sunk to a new low among the German infantry. THIRD ENEMY GENERAL KILLED LONDON, June 22. Berlin radio announced that Lieuten-ant-General Hellmich. “who particularly distinguished himself with his division in the fighting for Cherbourg Peninsula, died a hero's death last Saturday.” This is the third German general who has been killed in action since D-day.