BATTLE IN LYONS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 56, 4 September 1944, Page 2

BATTLE IN LYONS

ENEMY MOSTLY WITHDRAW ißec. noon. LONDON, September 3. ! The Germans retreating from the south of France beyond Lyons are being hacked up by the Americans, with the Maquis swooping against them from the Jura Mountains, states Reuters correspondent at Mediterranean headquarters. The Germans stand a good chance of melting away completely on the road back to Germany. 1 News agency messages late today state that the majority of the Germans apparently withdrew from Lyons Ito avoid encirclement, and Americans and French of the Seventh 'Army passed through in pursuit, with the people-of Lyons cheering them on. The Exchange Telegraph correspondent in a dispatch from Lyons, says: "The French gave .us a tumultuous welcome, both in the city and the suburbs through : which we passed, while a battle was in progress between the Maquis and Fascist militia across the, Rhone in the older part of the city. The Germans yesterday' morning destroyed the bridges leading from the city, where the Rhone and the Saone join up. Frenchmen entered the city about the same time and quickly cleared a section east of the Rhone. Lyon;, although needing meat and other foods, appears to be better off for food than Marseilles." Cairo radio states that the Allies advancing from France are now 12 miles east of Ventimiglia. The Germans have now evacuated practically all of southern France, from Lyons westward to the. Atlantic, says the Rome correspondent of the Exchange , Telegraph agency. The Allied, forces north-east ;of Lyons engaged the enemy at Bourg-en-Dresse, which is 33 miles north-east of Lyons and 37 miles west of the Swiss frontier. The encirclement of Lyons began following the capture of Venissieux, five miles south of the city. The German High Command is quoted by Berlin radio as saying that the withdrawals in south-western and southern France have been speeded up as a result of the Allied progress in northern France.