The Brooklyn Eagle (June 13, 1944)
MONTEBOURG SEIZED ON WAY TO CHERBOURG
Enemy masses for all-out fight
Yanks also take town near west coast railroad
By Virgil Pinkley
Bulletin
SHAEF, London, England (UP) –
U.S. invasion armies slashed halfway across the narrow neck of the Normandy Peninsula today and captured Pont-l’Abbé, only eight miles from the enemy’s west coast railway, in a drive to isolate Cherbourg.
SHAEF, London, England (UP) –
U.S. infantry captured the bypassed enemy stronghold of Montebourg, 14 miles southeast of Cherbourg, and drove on less than a dozen miles from the big port today as the Germans massed one-quarter of all their armies in Western Europe for an all-out attempt to smash the Allied invasion.
U.S. patrols, operating in advance of the main forces, were reported already probing the approaches to Cherbourg, one of France’s best ports and the main objective of the first phase of the invasion.
Farther to the southeast, other U.S. forces pushed to within less than six miles of the 11th-century citadel of Saint-Lô, halfway across the Normandy Peninsula, in a developing drive to split the peninsula in two and isolate Cherbourg.
A British broadcast said a U.S. spearhead was engaged east of Saint-Lô, presumably in a flanking move.
British and Canadian tanks and infantry also gained new ground between Saint-Lô and the eastern perimeter of the 80-mile-long Allied beachhead beyond Caen, but both Caen itself and Tilly-sur-Seulles, 11 miles to the west and 21 miles east of Saint-Lô, remained in German hands in fierce see-saw fighting.
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s 15th communiqué – marking the start of the second week of the invasion – reported “steady progress” in all but the Tilly-sur-Seulles sector.
Nazi general killed
The German High Command announced in its communiqué that a Gen. Marcks, identified as “commanding general of an army corps and brave defender of the Cherbourg Peninsula,” had been killed at the front during heavy fighting. The general may have been Lt. Gen. Erich Marcks, formerly commander of a German infantry division.
A front dispatch from Henry T. Gorrell, United Press war correspondent in Normandy, disclosed that U.S. infantry had occupied Montebourg on the main Cherbourg-Paris highway yesterday afternoon after several days of street fighting.
Elements of the 4th Division also drove to the east coast near Fontenay-sur-Mer, on a parallel highway three miles due east of Montebourg, Gorrell reported.
Nazis mass forces
Official estimates that the Germans have drawn off one-quarter of their entire strength in Europe to combat the invasion followed disclosure that 14-15 enemy divisions – 250,000 troops – were already known to have been brought up to front. Two of the divisions, the 716th and 352nd Infantry Divisions, have been mauled so severely, however, that they can no longer be considered fighting units.
The latest estimate of Allied strength in the beachhead came from the Paris radio, which said the arrival of additional Anglo-American troops in “great strength” last night boosted the number of divisions to 30 – 450,000 men at full strength.
The Vichy radio reported a new landing attempt at Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue, near the northeastern tip of the Normandy Peninsula 14 miles east of Cherbourg.
A broadcast by the clandestine Radio Atlantic, reported by NBC, asserted that two U.S. divisions with tanks had gone ashore under a naval bombardment at Barfleur, four miles north of Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue.
In view of the huge forces committed by both sides on the peninsula, Jean Paquis, Paris radio commentator, said the battle of Normandy was capable of deciding “the future course of the war.”
The heaviest fighting of the beachhead continued in the hills and valleys of the Tilly-sur-Seulles area between Saint-Lô and Tilly-sur-Seulles itself has changed hands a number of times in the no-quarter battle, but at last reports, the Germans still held the town.
Use French tanks
The British sent spearheads probing southwest and southeast of Tilly-sur-Seulles in a possible move to surround it. Three German panzer divisions were defending the area, but some units were armed with vulnerable French tanks, no match for the Allied armor and a sign that the enemy may be suffering from a shortage of tanks.
British units were reported strongly emplaced in hills overlooking Tilly-sur-Seulles.
Allied headquarters said the British 6th Airborne Division was holding firm to its beachhead across the Orne River and canal east of Caen in the face of almost continuous German counterattacks.
U.S. troops advanced to within a half dozen miles of the ancient hilltop fortress town of Saint-Lô, 20 miles inland, after clearing the enemy from the Cerisy Forest, the site of an important enemy fuel and ammunition dump, and cutting the Saint-Lô-Bayeux road northeast of Saint-Lô.
Has ancient defenses
Saint-Lô was originally fortified as a key stronghold for the defense of Normandy in the 11th century and some of its ancient defenses still remain. The town and its surrounding terrain in many respects resemble fortified villages encountered by the Allies in Sicily and Italy.
Northwest of Carentan, U.S. forces steadily widened and deepened their bridgehead across the Merderet River and were believed rapidly extending their penetration across the narrowest part of the Normandy Peninsula.
Two battleships shell area
The battleships USS Texas and USS Nevada and other Allied warships under RAdm. Alan G. Kirk of the U.S. Navy supported the ground forces with shattering bombardments of enemy strongpoints, troop concentrations and other targets on the approaches to Cherbourg.
German reinforcements had also moved into line below Cherbourg as the enemy sought at all cost to keep open his sole remaining first-class highway and single-track railway from the port. The Americans and, farther southeast, the British and the Canadians have cut the main Cherbourg-Paris railway and highway at a number of points between Valognes and Caen.
Northeast of Normandy, Allied bombers have cut every bridge across the Seine west of Paris, forcing the Germans to detour around the capital any reinforcements drawn off from northern France or the Lowlands.
The number of German prisoners captured in the first week of the invasion was estimated by Allied headquarters at 10,000, including a handful of Japanese, Spaniards, Dutch and Poles.
