BECOME A MAJOR OFFENSIVE

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 233, 29 June 1944, Page 5

BECOME A MAJOR OFFENSIVE

Attack To South Of Caen

HARD-FOUGHT GAINS (By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright.) LONDON, June 27.

General Montgomery’s advance beyond Tilly gained new momentum today and has become a. major offensive, states the “Daily Express” correspondent on the Tilly-Caen front. The British are attacking on a six-mile front through hills to the open country south of Caen. The British United Press correspondent says that men of a famous British regiment repulsed a German counter-at-tack backed up by tanks which tried to win back the village of mud and blood called Cheux. They held the attack in the woods at the end of the main street. Our guns knocked out at least five tanks. The fighting is now a mile to the southward. though snipers are still active hereabouts. The Exchange Telegraph agency s correspondent. referring to the fighting south of Cheux,, says the enemy covered lanes and roads with mortar and machinegun fire at many points, but our infantry went on. There was bitter fighting, however, in some woods and orchards purely between infantry because it was impossible for the tanks to help our infantry owing to the close nature of the country. Fierce hand-to-hand fighting occurred for the crossing of a small stream, whose banks were littered with dead. In the battles along this front we have destroyed 100 enemy tanks since the campaign began and Certainly damaged double that number. Another report says that the British forces south-west of Caen were engaged today in fierce battles which spread to within half-a-dozen miles of the city, and that fighting has been taking place in the countryside bordering the plain of Caen. It is infantry country mainly, but Churchill tanks are giving first-rate support. The Germans have been throwing in. tanks and putting over concentrated fire. First Battle Crisis Passed. By this evening British troops were already established astride the main road from Caen to Villers Bocage, and had reached the river Orne beyond it. They got through by striking a weak spot in the German defences. They forced a passage through the minefields yesterday, z passed tanks and infantry through it. and fanned out beyond the German defences. Today was the critical day. They hadto expect German counter-attacks. These came, hut they were held. They tried to batter at our flanks, but our armour held them off, and a spearhead thrnst on southward to- the river Odon, which joins the Orne at Caen. z A correspondent says the Germane have run out of infantry now that their main defence line between Tilly and Caen has been broken, and are using armour and panzer grenadiers to try to fill the gap* ' It is too early to say that we have achieved a real break through, for there. is still a lot of German armour about, but we have driven a corridor deeper into ' the enemy’s territory, and we have-the power to widen it and drive it still deeper. To the rumbling of big guns. General Montgomery’s advance continues through mud and slush in poppy fields, states Heuter’s correspondent on the Tilly-Caen front. The Germans are pulling up armour from the east in a desperate atlempt to hold the fractured line.'- The Germans have organized sniping in a big way. The trees are thick and leafy, and mipers are thick in them. Tanks fire abort bursts into the foliage as they pass. Over 30 German tanks counter-attack-ed last night at Grainville sur Odon, but failed to gain any ground. Two Tiger tanks were knocked out and two other types were put out of action. The rest fell back. The Germans have a number of tank groups in this sector, but they have not yet acted in a concerted move. “We are holding down a terrific amount of German armour, and every German has been ordered to fight to the last round,” said a British officer. The weather is bad with torrential rains, but clear patches of sky have enabled the R.A.F. to plaster German batteries. , The north-eastern tip of the peninsula is cleared of the enemy, but there is still opposition in the north-west tip, and a German force is still holding out round ■the Maupertus airfield.