The Pittsburgh Press (July 12, 1944)
Americans advance mile on citadel
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer
Yanks resumed their advance on Nazi strongholds on the western and central sectors of the front in Normandy today as British in the Caen area repulsed fierce Nazi counterattacks. The Americans were 2¼ miles from Lessay and 4½ miles from Périers (1). In the drive on Saint-Lô, the Yanks captured two dominating heights and drove to within 1½ miles of that hilltop citadel and were wiping out an encircled garrison in La Meauffe (2). The British withdrew from Louvigny (3), but gained ground and beat off counterattacks near Colombelles (4).
SHAEF, London, England –
The U.S. 1st Army advanced a mile through the outer defenses of Saint-Lô today to within one and a half miles of the German citadel anchoring the central Normandy front, and, six miles to the east, drove across the main highway to Bayeux.
The Berlin radio said Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery had unleashed a general Allied offensive from end to end of the French front, and Allied headquarters reported that the Americans, British and Canadians were battering ahead in most sectors of the line in heavy battles.
Two heights overrun
Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley’s U.S. assault forces hammered out slow but steady gains all along the battle arc north and northeast of Saint-Lô. They overran two commanding heights excellent for observation and artillery fire.
The Battle of Normandy gained in violence, and reports from the front and headquarters indicated that Gen. Montgomery and Marshal Erwin Rommel were throwing in their forces for a showdown battle expected to determine the immediate course of the war in the west.
United Press writer James McGlincy reported from outside Saint-Lô in a dispatch filed at 5:10 p.m. that an American spearhead had been driven into the German lines to the crest of a hill sloping down into the town from the northeast, and a shattering artillery barrage had “half flattened” the ancient citadel controlling communications to the heart of Normandy.
Road littered with dead
Mr. McGlincy reported:
The battles have been most fierce all day. Every field on the way to Saint-Lô is hotly contested. The road to Saint-Lô, along which I have just driven as far as possible, then walked, is littered with German dead and burned-out vehicles. German corpses line the ditches on each side of the road.
U.S. Thunderbolts swooped down on German military transport near Saint-Lô and destroyed six vehicles today. Medium and light bombers smashed targets behind the German front.
To the northwest, other U.S. forces captured two villages 2¾ miles south of La Haye-du-Puits, in advances of 1,000 yards on both sides of the highway running down to Lessay.
Henry T. Gorrell, United Press writer at 1st Army headquarters, reported that the Germans were showing signs of an orderly withdrawal southward in the west coast sector as U.S. troops advanced within 2¼ miles of Lessay.
British securing bases
British and Canadian troops around Caen were consolidating their positions and securing bases for further attacks, the headquarters spokesman reported.
The German were revealed to have mounted a strong tank and infantry attack in the area of Le Hommet-d’Arthenay, seven miles northwest of Saint-Lô, yesterday. The Americans contained the onslaught, destroying “something over” 20 tanks and inflicting other losses on the enemy.
The German attack was aimed at the center of the U.S. bridgehead across the Vire River, but it gained “virtually no” ground. However, the Americans pulled back their positions slightly, abandoning at least temporarily the village of Le Désert.
Allied attacks synchronized
The German DNB News Agency, in a broadcast dispatch reporting a general Allied offensive, said the U.S. 1st and British 2nd Armies heretofore had been operating more or less independently but now had synchronized their attacks.
It said Gen. Montgomery had 32 well-equipped divisions. The Germans “took up shortened lines” in the western coastal sector, DNB reported.
British lose town
At the eastern end of the front, the Germans broke off their counterattacks around Caen after driving the British and Canadians out of Louvigny, two miles southwest of the inland port.
Lt. Gen. Miles C. Dempsey’s British 2nd Army, however, retained its hold on high ground overlooking the Orne River near its confluence with the Odon below Caen and gained further ground both in the Colombelles suburb east of Caen and the Hottot area south of Tilly-sur-Seulles.
The American and British thrusts toward Saint-Lô and the Orne River line yesterday touched off the fiercest armored battles since D-Day and Allied planes alone knocked out 44 enemy tanks in 24 hours.
166 tanks in 4 days
Gen. Bradley’s ground forces northwest of Saint-Lô knocked out an additional 12 tanks, to boost the toll of German armor for the four days Saturday through Tuesday to at least 166.
“German counterattacks were many and severe all along the Allied front Tuesday, but they were held and we made some gains,” Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower reported in his 73rd communiqué of the invasion.
The Americans straightened their line south of La Meauffe, five miles north of Saint-Lô, with an advance of 1,000 yards, while their comrades to the northwest pushed down the Carentan–Périers road to within four and a quarter miles northeast of Périers.
The Yanks were attacking to annihilate an encircled German garrison of 250-300 in La Meauffe, a mile and a half behind the American line.
Planes blast tanks
U.S. and British fighter-bombers destroyed or damaged 31 enemy tanks in supporting the ground forces between Lessay and Saint-Lô yesterday, while rocket-firing British craft accounted for another 13 near Hottot on the British sector.
Gen. Eisenhower’s communiqué said the enemy’s strongest counterblow was launched in the Colombelles–Sainte-Honorine area east of Caen and the Allies’ closest approach to Paris, but a front dispatch asserted the British front was generally quiet today.
A dispatch last night said the Germans had used in their counterattacks on the British sector more tanks than ever before in action in Normandy.
A staff officer suggested the Germans were making their maximum effort at this time out of fear they would be unable to attack in such force later when the cumulative effects of the ceaseless Allied air bombardment of their rear areas take effect.
