The Pittsburgh Press (July 30, 1944)
Yanks smash five gaps in Nazi line
Germans stampeding southward; Americans wipe out three divisions
By Edward W. Beattie, United Press staff writer
Deeper into France through five gaps in the German lines went U.S. forces as the Germans gave way, with a tank battle, in the region of Tessy-sur-Vire, the only major Nazi opposition. One U.S. forces (1) drove within three miles north of Bréhal, and smashed to the west coast of Normandy at Regnéville and Saint-Malo-de-la-Lande. Late dispatches said Nazis in the pocket above Coutances were wiped out by a U.S. force which swept down from Lessay. U.S. troops also drove to within three miles of Bréhal from the east-northeast (2), closed on the Granville–Vire road (3) and aimed a spearhead toward Vire (4). East of Saint-Lô, the Americans advanced three miles toward Torigny (5), while on the eastern end of the front, the situation was unchanged in the Caen area.
SHAEF, London, England –
Triumphant U.S. doughboys poured through five gaping holes in the German battle lines in western Normandy today, lunging six miles beyond captured Coutances to the sea and wiping out the last survivors of three of the seven Nazi divisions caught in the path of their armored columns.
The entire Nazi left flank buckled and broke, sending a torrent of U.S. infantrymen and tanks racing southward toward the port of Granville only eight miles beyond the farthest point of the advance last night.
Crack German units rushed in from the east stiffened the enemy lines momentarily at some points, particularly west of the Vire River below Saint-Lô, but nowhere were the battered Nazis able to halt the American juggernaut.
German pocket eliminated
The German pocket north of Coutances was eliminated by a U.S. force that, driving forward 16 miles in six hours, swept down from Lessay to join up with two other armored spearheads that had fused at Coutances and pushed on to the sea.
United Press writer Robert C. Miller reported the destruction of the enemy pocket in a delayed dispatch from the Coutances front, of the fate of several thousand Germans trapped above Coutances by the first two U.S. columns that reached the city.
A high military spokesman revealed, however, that three enemy divisions, almost half the force that attempted to stop the U.S. offensive, had been destroyed.
Attack hurled back
The Germans put up their bitterest resistance in the Tessy-sur-Vire area west of the Vire River. The German 2nd Armored Division, rushed from the Caen front, hurled a savage counterattack against the advancing Americans, only to be smashed back with heavy losses. For the moment, however, Tessy became a no-man’s-land as the two tank armies sparred around its outskirts.
The counterblow failed to halt the stampede of the main German force to the west. Enemy vehicles were jammed bumper to bumper along the highways in a disorderly retreat toward Brittany, piling up tanks and transports at broken bridges under merciless attack from low-flying Allied planes.
New push to east
The American advance down the west side of France began paying off in relation to the front as a whole when a new Yankee push gathered momentum southeast of Saint-Lô. This column advanced three miles Saturday to within two miles of the important crossroads of Torigny against slight resistance as the Germans withdrew.
More than 7,000 prisoners had been captured in the breakthrough to the west and a great many others, some fighting like cornered animals, others huddled in caves and forests, were being mopped up by U.S. infantry. Two huge groups were liquidated southeast of Coutances, with the help of dive bombers.
The escape of all enemy units remaining north was cut off when U.S. troops finished cleaning up Coutances and drove on southwest to the coast.
Tank spearheads join
Two armored spearheads which had joined in the final assault on Coutances were now pushed in a powerful push down the coast which was driving the fleeing enemy almost into the arms of another tank force which had carried out a swinging advance southward and then to the west.
The latter forces was already shelling with heavy artillery all the enemy escape roads between it and the sea and had shot forward almost 10 miles overnight, capturing Saint-Denis-le-Gast and Lengronne and advancing within three miles of Bréhal and eight of the valuable port of Granville.
Meanwhile, on the eastern flank of the breakthrough near Tessy, the Germans launched their first great counterblow, front dispatches revealed.
Luftwaffe bombs lines
During Friday night, the Luftwaffe bombed U.S. lines in that sector in heavy strength, then at dawn, Mark VI Tiger and Mark V Panther tanks attacked the west, touching off a major battle.
Except for valuable blows put in by U.S. anti-tank guns, it was a battle of tank versus tank since heavy artillery and air support were called back because of the closeness of the fighting. The first lunge of the Tigers and Panthers overran one U.S. position and a number of Sherman tanks were knocked out, but within a few hours the situation was under control and the enemy withdrew, leaving a number of tanks smoking on the battlefield.
Joining forces with another armored column which had crossed the Tessy-Bréhal road in the Maupertus sector to the west, the Yanks continued their advance toward the Granville–Vire road.
Ninth Air Force headquarters in France said that 70 Nazi tanks were destroyed Friday south of Coutances by Allied planes, and British headquarters listed 271 destroyed, probably destroyed or damaged in a three-day period.
The U.S. 1st Army was keeping the enemy so off-balance that it appeared impossible he would be able to make a stand short of a line running inland from Avranches at the neck of the Breton Peninsula.
400 square miles cleared
In cleaning out the German salient pushing up east of Saint-Lô, the Yanks captured Saint-Jean-des-Baisants and pushed on a mile, promising an early linkup with the column moving toward Torigny.
Since the Yanks started forward Tuesday, using the same “leapfrog” tactics in taking over from the infantry that Lt. Gen. George S. Patton Jr., perfected in Sicily, the Yanks have enveloped an area of 400 square miles.
Absolute quiet was reported Saturday from the British sector.
