WEDGE EXTENDED BELOW CAEN

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 234, 30 June 1944, Page 5

WEDGE EXTENDED BELOW CAEN

Scattered But Constant Tank Engagements

BATTLE BETWEEN RIVERS

(Received June 29, 11.20 p.m.) LONDON, June 29. The British Second Army in Normandy has widened the bridgehead across the River Odon. More tanks and troops poured over during last night to strengthen and deepen the wedge we hav driven into the German defences covering Caen. The battle is in ideal tank country. A very formidable concentration of enemy armour ba » h “ "°SCt launched a major counter-attack, though tanks battered 7®"%!® night at the British wedge both north and south of the Odon. 1 hey were met by our artillery, and a correspondent describes it as an “extremely noisy night” When daylight came our planes began to plaster the enemy with bombs. The armoured actions in the battle so far have involved only two or three tanks at a time, but these skirmishes have been going on constantly round the British wedge. , Correspondents say great importance isattached to the area between the rivers, occupation of which would cut all but two of the roads to Caen. British troops have made a short gam just out side the northern outskirts of Caen.

(By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright.) I LONDON, June 28. I A big tank battle is now raging in the open, rolling country of the plateau between the Odon River ana the Orne, the forcing of which would place the German garrison in Caen in extreme peril, says Reuter’s correspondent in'a dispatch from the battle area. “A staff officer told me this morning,” he says: ‘“I think the operation has been most successful. The Germans are in an awful situation. Our thumb is hourly pushing more deeply into his defences.’ Today’s crossing of the Odon was made on a front of two miles near the village of Grainvine, which is 6J miles southwest of Caen. . . “The latest summing up, says tne Reuter correspondent, “is that our positions are strongly held, but the enemy on our flanKs has flatly refused ft withdraw. He has got a. number of small but strong infantry positions, very often well underground in woods and close country from which’he guards the exits of narrow roads with anti-tank guns and a background of Panther and Tiger tanks. We securely hold Coleville and Mouen, and are fighting in Gramville. The Germans still hold positions on rising ground dominating the British crossing of the Odon.” The fighting is fierce not only at the tip of the British wedge beyond the Odon, but also along the flanks of the drive, though these are strongly protected by armour. Fierce Flank Battle. The Exchange Telegraph correspondent with the British forces says the infantry fighting its fiercest on the right flank, where the wooded country ends. “Our tanks and anti-tank guns,” he says, ’ engaged enemy tanks which were sent out in groups. Some pockets of resistance are still being mopped up, though the Germans are endeavouring to hang on till the very last. Several more villages were captured today. Allied air forces fully supported • the fighting men when the advance continued in the first light, attacking gun positions and shooting up transport.” .. , . The “Daily Express” correspondent says German Tiger and Panther tanks are takings beating from our heavy antitank weapons and accurate artillery fire. “One knocked-out Panther,” he says, “was about the size of a bus, but much wider and squatter. Its sides were skib fully sloped to make anti-tank shells skid off. The Panther carried an immensely long 75-millimetre gun which is probably more- troublesome than the Tiger tank’s heavy 88-millimetre gun. Panthers and Tigers were troublesome in ’ small villages and hamlets, .where they could hide from air observation. Consequently we had to adopt the American method of simply bashing down these villages and hamlets.” The “Express” correspondent says that after a running tahk and gun fight the most forward tanks this afternoon are within one mile of the village of Esquay, which is midway between the Odon and Orne Rivers. As the Russians in their communiques, scores of inhabited places have been liberated. Highly Successful. British forces are tonight less than 4000 yards from the Orne River, states Reuter’s correspondent with the 21st Army Group. He added that masses of guns, tanks and infantry are streaming across the Odon bridgehead, and the engineers are rapidly building more pontoon bridges over which reinforcements are pouring. “One of the biggest tank battles ever is going on between the valleys of the Odon and the Orne,” the correspondent says.' “More than 60 German tanks have been put out of action in three days of battle, which can now be disclosed as being really tremendous in power and Violence.”

“It is a magnificent accomplishment,”, said a staff officer. "It is a very big battle, and has been highly successful. The fac‘ that we have pushed forward seven miles against extremely tough opposition and across very difficult country is a tremendous achievement. In three days of the bitterest and most savage fighting British and German tanks often grappled w>th death less than 30 yards apart. British flesh and blood and terrific determination have smashed the Germans back seven miles.” The Exchange Telegraph agency’s correspondent with the British forces says the greatest tank battle since the. Allied forces landed in France raged this afternoon. when the enemy threw in tanks from all sides in an attempt to hold up our advance. He launched altogether nine attacks from different points, all of which were thrown back, with losses to the enemy. The battle is being fought in deep mud. North of Caen there is confused fighting. The battle is becoming more and more an armoured affair, but has not yet reached the tank country of the Caen plain. The Allied headquarters stated that adverse weather this morning restricted air operations over the -Battle area.to a limited number of fighter patrols.

A correspondent [presumably later] says improved weather today, with the sky only partly overcast, is enabling the air forces to operate over the whole front. The roads are now fairly dry, and traffic is moving up to the front smoothly.

Spitfire wings over Normandy this morning destroyed 15 enemv fighters. Pilots reported that the German pilots appeared to use amateurish tactics, obviously the result of their long inactivity.

BRITISH SECOND ARMY

LONDON, June 28.

The supreme Allied headquarters disclosed that it is the British Second Army which is fighting in Normandy. All the British troops in France are part of it. says “The Times.” The Second Army is a new formation built up over a long period specially for the second front, and is commanded by Lieutenant-General Miles Christopher Dempsey, aged 47, an infantryman who has won rapid promotion.. He commanded an infantry brigade in France and Belgium and became acting major-general in June. 1941, at the head of an armoured division, and .acting lieutenantgeneral in 1942 to take over an army corps which was then hurrying westward through Libya in pursuit of Rommel from El Alamein. The Second Army is at present fighting to menace Rommel’s vital hinge, in the town of Caen, says Renter. The total of Allied casualties in Normandy for the fortnight from D-dav to June 20 was 40,549, comprising 0257 killed, 23,079 wounded, and 12,183 missing.

WAR OF MANOEUVRE

Development Of Campaign POSSIBILITIES IN EUROPE The** latest information • about the battlefront in Normandy indicates that the Allied strategists are determined to employ the principle of a genuine lightning war, avoiding battles of attrition involving huge forces in slow and costly Bt Actually, the advent of the tank and mechanization generally has created the opportunity for warfare of a pattern very similar to that of olden days when armies of manoeuvre operated. In order to obtain a clear perspective of battles of manoeuvre one must appreciate the fact that an enemy may be jockeyed out of a position without fighting.. The Allied landing in has reached a stage where a very large army may now be built up to provide a very definite threat. What will it threaten? Geography largely determines the nature of the threat. There is no reason why the Allied threat in Normandy should not come from an overwhelming army of a million men. Whatever be the total number, German hold on the whole northwest corner of France will be involved. The River Seine runs across central France in a north-westerly direction for some 300 miles. The River Loire runs in a westerly direction roughly parallel to the northern coastline of France and some 250 to 300 miles from it. These two rivers thus box off the north-west corner of France in a compartment whose sides are roughly squares of 300 miles. The whole of that area will be threatened by the armies in Normandy. It is probable that the Germans will be emptied out of the Brittany peninsula largely by this threat. They have the choice of escaping before the threat develops or eventually being cut off.; The first effect, therefore, will be that it will endanger the German submarine bases of St. Nazaire, Lorient, and Brest. Moreover ,the cutting of the English Channel by the Normandy operations necessitates roundabout sea routes to Germany via the Arctic. It may well be that the Allied armies in Normandy will eventually occupy the whole of this box formed by the Seine and the Loire.

Menace From Afar.

When the Allies possess not only Normandy but also Brittany even greater threats occur. All this will not be gained without fighting. Nevertheless, the mere threat creates a state where a war of attrition is removed. The next threat to the German occupation of France will be felt in the south-west corner, that area from the Pyrenees northward to the high ground west of the Rhone Valley. The threat here arises from the fact that if Allied occupation of Italy proceeds at the speed it is doing Italy will be no place to receive withdrawing German armies. German troops in the south-west corner of France will be in danger of being cut off by a double threat developed from Normandy and Italy. In fact, an Allied landing on the eastern coast .of southern France must be contemplated by the German strategists, as well as subsidiary landings along the Bordeaux coast. Th|S threat cannot but produce spectacular repercussions. Under this menace the Germans would have to withdraw their forces east of the Seine and the Rhone if they did not wish them to be cut off, cut-up, and destroyed. The psychological effect of the by then well-defined threat to the Fatherland would tend toward economy in troops rather than suicide tactics. While the German troops in the north might or might not be able to hold the line of the Seine, it is clear that the troops in the Rhone Valley would find themselves in a predicament. Their bolt hole into Italy would probably be unusable. East lies Switzerland and its inhospitable mountains, and extrication would involve a 200-mile movement to the Belfort Gap into Germany near Basle. The Germans would then hold a strip of France 400. miles long by 150 miles wide. A powerful punch in the Calais or Holland area would administer a coup de grace to German hopes of holding any part of France.

While the Allies in France administer a series of sharp overwhelming punches it must be appreciated that the Russians will be doing the same on the western front. In fact, German strategists will he left with the choice of who shall enter Berlin first. Churchill or Stalin? It is a modestly ironic ending to the German blitzkrieg which planned to overwhelm the whole world.—E.A.A.

NOW UP TO 40,000

Prisoners On Peninsula

(British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, June 28. Mopping-up operations are still proceeding in the Cherbourg area, it was learned at Supreme Headquarters tonight. The estimated total of prisoners as a result of the peninsula advance is now between 30,000 and 40,000. Resistance by enemy pockets around Maupertus airfield, five miles east of Cherbourg, has ceased, and the airfield is now in Allied hands. There is no further resistance in the city or the harbour. In the north-east corner of the peninsula the enemy is withstanding Allied troops in the Cape de Barfleur region. These are probably scattered units. In the north-west of the peninsula there is still opposition in the Cape de la Hague area, particularly at Beaumont Hague, five miles south-east of the cape. From here some enemy artillery is re•ported. There are indications that serious damage has been done to the port facilities at Cherbourg. This will probably necessitate considerable improvizations to obtain the maximum value from the port. There are no further reports on the southern American front.

FACILITIES COMPARED

(Received June 29, 9.30 p.m.) LONDON, June 28. A "Daily Express” correspondent who left the British sector to join the American forces and report the fall of Cherbourg compares the facilities given to British and American correspondents. He says: "The Americans have a commercial radio station in Normandy transmitting messages to New York at the rate of 700 words a minute. British correspondents on the Caen sector have a radio set sending some 80 words a minute —• when it works. Moreover, they are limited to 400 words, whereas the Americans have no limit." The “Daily Express” says that British correspondents have found it three times quicker to send dispatches to London, via New York, than directly to Loudon.