NAZI OFFENSIVES HALTED

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 229, 24 June 1944, Page 8

NAZI OFFENSIVES HALTED

French Patriot Action SEVERAL CENTRES ISOLATED (.By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Received June 23, 9 p.m.) LONDON, June 22. French patriot? have brought to a standstill two German offensives against France's Army of the Interior, says the British United Press, quoting reports reaching London. German forces concentrated for an attack against patriots in Brittany were themselves attacked, and in one of the biggest actions so far fought between patriots and Germans, the Germans were defeated before they could launch their attack. The stubborn resistance of the French has broken a German offensive south-west of Grenoble and many attacks are_ reported against isolated German garrisons m the Jura and Doubs departments in which <the Germans have suffered serious casualties. , • „ Patriots simultaneously are continuing to delay the movement of German reinforcements to Normandy. Many troop and ammunition trains have, been derailed in Lorraine, where traffic is. reported to be completely blocked. Special sabotage units have concentrated against German telephonic communications behind the front. Patriots, by cutting underground long-distance cables, have completely blocked out the telephone system in eight vita] areas, whereby Caen is .cut offfrom Rouen and Rouen from Amiens. Dther important centres isolated are Chaunau, Chalons, east of Paris. Limoges. Ushel. in western France. Montpellier. Norbonne in the south, also the town of Gap and Briancon in the south-west. , An Important Factor.

A correspondent at Allied headquarters says that though the Maquis were supplied with arms and ammunition, mainly British Sten guns. Allied headquarters did not rely on patriots as an important factor in the m-asion. but operations by the Mnquis have now assumed such a scale that they are an important factor in the war in Normandy. “Standing in the ruins of Carentan, I argued with a group of French villagers, says Alan Moorehead, of the “Daily Express.” “ ‘You say you are delighted the Allies are here, but how can you feel that when everything you own has been destroyed, also your churches and shops? I asked. They replied : ‘We remember the German invasion of 1870 and again in 1914 and 1940. It has always been the Boche. It is not your fault that our towns have been destroyed. It had to be done to get rid of the Boche.’ ” The French Provincial Government at Algiers stated that French patriots who are now controlling a large part of four departments have communicated with the Government by radio, asking for instructions for administration of the liberated territory.

Reuter’s correspondent at Algiers reports that the French Committee of Liberation has asked Britain whether she is prepared to give full diplomatic privileges to M. Andre le Troyeur, the Commissioner delegated for the administration of French liberated territories, to enable him to ‘carry out his duties in liberated French territory.