French patriots halt Nazis rushing to front
An advanced command post, SHAEF (UP) – (June 17)
The Allied High Command, in the first official acknowledgment since D-Day of spreading operations by the French underground, announced tonight in a special communiqué that a reinforced Army of the French Forces of the Interior had effectively tied up Nazi reserves in “its assigned role” behind the German lines.
The communiqué cited large scale sabotage which has crippled rail and road traffic, reportedly completely stopped in the strategic Rhône Valley.
It also mentioned disruption of telephone and telegraph communications, power plants, and canals, and successful battles against enemy units.
Delay Nazi troop movements
The communiqué said:
These multiple and simultaneous acts of sabotage, coordinated with the Allied air effort, have delayed considerably the movement of German reserves to the combat zone.
Simultaneously, the second French communiqué issued here on the fighting in the interior reported that German troops en route to reinforce Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt’s forces in Normandy were being held up as the result of patriot attacks along the railway line between Bordeaux and Limoges. French saboteurs have blasted the track with dynamite at several places, causing extensive damage, it was said.
Forays against communications and railways all across France, and reaching to the Paris vicinity, were reported “interfering considerably” with German troop movements to the fighting zone.
Underground army increase
Confirming previous reports that Frenchmen, including Vichy police and militia, were flocking to join the partisans, the Allied communiqué said that since the day, U.S. and British troops landed in Normandy, the French Interior Army had “increased both in size and in the scope of its activities.” It said:
Guerrilla operations against the enemy are in full swing and in some areas the Army of the French Forces of the Interior are in full control.
The communiqué gave credence to earlier reports of underground successes against the Germans in pitched fighting, particularly in the Jura sector of southeastern France. Although it mentioned no place names, the communiqué noted that the Maquis had attacked German garrisons, reportedly taking 300 prisoners, to have engaged in street fighting, and to have occupied villages in some areas. It said many Nazi detachments had been destroyed.