Yanks win big tank battle
Nazi force trapped in Normandy by U.S. drive to west coast
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer
New U.S. breakthrough was scored by troops who drove through to the west coast of the Normandy Peninsula and trapped a large German force above Coutances. U.S. troops drove on from captured Coutances to within three miles north of Bréhal (1), smashed down to the west to a point less than nine miles east-northeast of Bréhal (2), surged to within four miles of the Granville–Vire road (3) and advanced to within 10 miles northwest of Vire (4).
SHAEF, London, England –
U.S. armor defeated the Germans in a big tank battle in western Normandy today and resumed the powerful drive which had captured Coutances and carried to the sea, trapping thousands of Nazi troops in a pocket to the north.
The first major German counteraction against the 1st Army offensive fanning out through Normandy was crushed decisively in a hours-long battle of U.S. Shermans and German Tigers and Panthers some 11 miles south of Saint-Lô near the east bank of the Vire River in the vicinity of Tessy-sur-Vire.
Other U.S. forces sped down the highway below Coutances, rolling up a gain of nearly eight miles in the first few hours and approaching the Bréhal road junction.
United Press writer Henry T. Gorrell reported from the front that U.S. armor, in its first big tank engagement since the Sicilian campaign, broke up a concentration of Nazi panzers and put the remnants to flight.
After German planes plastered the entire area of the tank battle, a German armored column struck in the darkness at 3:00 a.m. (local time) in an attempt to break up a parade of Shermans southward into the heart of Normandy.
After hours of savage fighting, the panzers pulled out, and when Mr. Gorrell filed the dispatch at 2:40 p.m., were retreating under a hail of bombs dropped by U.S. planes as the interrupted sweep picked up new momentum.
The setting for the tank battle was dramatic. A large number of Germans were trying to escape from the area north of the Tessy–Bréhal highway, and their chances depended on the battle.
“No doubt there will be plenty of disillusioned Germans among those captured in the next few hours,” Mr. Gorrell said.
The famous Norman hedges upon which the Germans had relied to hold back the U.S. armor boomeranged on the Nazis. This time it was the giant Tigers and Panthers, instead of U.S. forces, that were at a disadvantage, “for it is the attacking side that holds the short end of the stick in this kind of country,” Mr. Gorrell reported.
The German tanks were supported by 88mm guns, U.S. anti-tank guns also played a major role in the battle. there were casualties on both sides, Mr. Gorrell said, without estimating their extent. One U.S. command post was overrun in the first phase of the fight.
Tank and tank destroyers weaved in and out of the hedgerows, firing fast, and blasted the obstacles from the American path. A “good number” of German Tigers and Panthers were knocked out, and some Shermans were disabled.
Employing the famous leapfrog tactics used and perfected by Lt. Gen. George S. “Blood and Guts” Patton Jr. in Sicily, the west coast armored column and at least three others inland swept across the Sienne and Soulle Rivers – previously mentioned as possible enemy defense lines – and engulfed or bypassed scores of towns and villages in what was developing into one of the great American victories of the war.
The reference to the tactics used by Gen. Patton recalled recent German claims that he has taken a command in Normandy.
Though the early stages of their retreat were chaotic, the Germans now appeared to be conducting an orderly withdrawal along the entire western half of the front so rapidly that indications were they may not halt for a stand short of Avranches, at the hinge of the Normandy and Brittany Peninsulas 25 miles south of Coutances.
The German-controlled Scandinavian Telegraph Bureau said the Americans were attacking with 10 or 12 tank divisions – an estimated 2,500 tanks – in an offensive apparently designed to smash into the heart of France in an attempt to split the German armies in two and clear the southern flank for a drive on Paris.
While the coastal column bypassed Le Mesnil-Aubert in a push down the road from Coutances to within three miles of Bréhal and eight miles above the port of Granville, a second force rolled down a lateral road to within nine miles east-northeast of Bréhal, a third pounded to within four miles of Granville–Vire lateral highway and a fourth reached a point 10 miles northwest of Vire.
A front dispatch reported that Gavray, seven miles east of Bréhal and one of the focal points of the enemy retreat, was within range of U.S. mobile artillery from the north.
The Americans entered Coutances late yesterday and found it deserted, then plunged on to the west coast south of the Sienne estuary to complete the encirclement of an estimated several thousand German troops isolated in a pocket to the north.
Nazis escape
Front dispatches said the bulk of the German LXXXIV Army Corps of seven badly-battered divisions assigned to the Lessay–Périers sector before the breakthrough escaped through the Coutances bottleneck before U.S. tanks cut across to the sea.
The thousands caught in the trap, however, were expected to boost the bag for the first five days of the offensive to well over 8,000. Five thousand prisoners had been taken through yesterday, Supreme Headquarters said.
The Americans were estimated to have liberated some 400 square miles of France between Saint-Lô and the west coast since they began their offensive in the wake of a 8,000-plane bombardment of enemy lines Tuesday.
At least two of the three enemy panzer, one paratroop and five infantry divisions arrayed along the western half of the front were believed to have been destroyed as fighting units. They were the Lehr Panzer and the 5th Paratroop Divisions. In addition, virtually all tanks of the 17th SS Panzer Grenadier Division were believed to have been knocked out.
Cross Sienne River
The Americans crossed the Sienne River at several points and reached the west coast at Regneville, 5½ miles southwest of Coutances, and at last reports were sweeping down both sides of the Coutances–Bréhal–Granville highway.
Mr. Gorrell reported the Germans were fighting bitter rearguard actions along some sectors of the arc below Coutances, with cooks and supply units joining in, but they were no match for the overwhelming American strength.
One U.S. column alone took 1,500 prisoners yesterday, including 50 officers. An entire medical company of the 17th SS Panzer Division was captured.
The American advance from the east-northeast toward Bréhal carried through Saint-Denis-le-Gast, 10 miles away, while the forces driving due south toward the Granville–Vire highway were south of Percy, where German Marshal Erwin Rommel held a military conference only a few days ago.
Outdated by reports
Normandy information at Supreme Headquarters late today was outdated by front reports of the big tank battle and U.S. advances beyond the points mentioned by a spokesman here.
The spokesman said the Americans captured Saint-Malo-de-la-Lande, 3½ miles northwest of Coutances, and reached the coast in that area. They reached the area of Lengronne, 2½ miles west of Saint-Denis-le-Gast, and southeast of Saint-Lô advanced a mile in the area of Saint-Jean-des-Baisants.
Push toward Vire
Vire was under long-range threat from a column that had driven through Tessy-sur-Vire, 10 miles south of Saint-Lô.
Gorrell reported in another front dispatch that the German Air Force appeared in strength last night for probably the first time since D-Day and heavily bombed the advancing Americans, but Allied anti-aircraft guns put up a heavy barrage.
British Mosquitoes struck back at the Germans with attacks on 18 trains over a wide area extending from Granville to Paris, the lines over which the enemy would move up reinforcements to the threatened front.
The rest of the Normandy front continued quiet, with only artillery and patrol action reported from Saint-Lô west to Caen.
