The Pittsburgh Press (July 21, 1944)
Rommel’s tanks fall back as Allies seize six towns
Rain stops big-scale action in Normandy; foe retreats to escape encirclement
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer
SHAEF, London, England –
British and U.S. troops plunged ahead through six villages today despite a downpour which drowned out big-scale action on the Normandy front, and German armor was reported pulling back from the nose of the breakthrough salient southeast of Caen under an encirclement threat.
Canadian troops drove forward a few hundred years from Saint-André-sur-Odon to capture the neighboring village of Saint-Martin-de-Fontenay a little over four miles south of Caen. Five villages scattered along the British and American fronts had been taken earlier.
Both Allied and German troops soaked miserably in their slit trenches while a 36-hour downpour continued.
Canadians stop attack
The Germans threw in a sharp counterthrust against the Canadian front below Caen, but were turned back.
To the west, British forces slogged ahead 1,000 yards south of the Caumont–Tilly-sur-Seulles road.
A United Press dispatch from the Caen front reported that the battle “is still going well” with the definite failure of the German counterattack, and “it is now safe to say that the Allied offensive is over the hump.”
As Rommel pulled back his armor from the plains southeast of Caen to avoid the threat from strengthened British positions on either side, the Germans depended mainly on their anti-tank and other fortifications to stem the British push, and only short-lived clashes of armor were reported.
The battle of Troarn on the left flank of the Caen pocket continued into its second day, with British assault forces fighting ahead from the captured rail station on the edge of the town.
On the left flank, other British forces were fighting street battles in Évrecy, southwest of Caen, and the village of Bougy, a mile and a half to the northwest. Saint-André-sur-Orne was captured yesterday, clearing the bank of the river four miles due south of Caen, and to the west a drive more than four miles below Tilly-sur-Seulles overran the village of Monts.
U.S. forces closing in on Périers, central base of the German defenses on the 1st Army front, captured Sèves (two and a half miles north of Périers), Raids (on the Carentan–Périers highway four miles to the north), and Le Mesnil-Eury (eight miles southeast of Périers on the Saint-Lô highway).
Altogether the Allied armies scored gains or pinched off German pockets in 13 sectors, most of them line-straightening operations along a 90-mile fighting front.
The new advances carried British troops five miles due south of Caen along both banks of the Orne, and at most places they were less than a mile apart on either side of the river.
The Channel was lashed by a storm, which, with the rain in the fighting areas, almost completely halted aerial support for the British and U.S. troops.