Evening star., 1944-08-03

BY the Associated Press.
SUPREME ALLIED HEAD
QUARTERS, Aug. 3.-American
tanks and motorized infantry
plunging through Brittany have
captured Rennes, key to the pen
insula and the most important
city to fall since Cherbourg.
Rennes lies almost halfway across
the peninsula to st. Nazaire, Ger
man U-boat base and American
troop port in the World War.
The American armor moved for
ward as much as 40 miles In single
24-hour period.
Three spearheads, tanning from
Avranches, rolled along Brittany's
roads almost without opposition.
One spearhead captured Rennes,
= city of more than $4,000 popula-
ton, in a dash to the South. An
other reached the outskirts of
Dinan in a thrust to the west toward
the great port of Brest. The third
moved into Combourg, between
Rennes and Dinan.
Resistance Collapses.
Enemy resistance collapsed alto
gether below Avranches and for
many miles American tanks had no
opposition until they reached the
outskirts of Rennes and Dinan, an
Associated Press dispatch from the
front said.
The dash into Brittany had
caught the Germans with the barest
garrison force. There were some
unofficial predictions here that the
whole Breton Peninsula might fall
by the week end. ,-ss.s4sssszsa<
Not until the outskirts Of Rennes
and Dinan were reached was an
enemy found, and then 1000 Ger
man soldiers tossed down their arms
at Rennes. At Dinan the Ameri-
cans had swept across the Rance
River, which runs on the east side
Of the town.
The latest front-line dispatch was
written late yesterday, and it was
probable that the American whirl-
wind already had swept well past
these points.
Canadians Open Attack.
While 1t. Gov. Omar N. Bradley S
columns were sweeping to victory
which might be the greatest stroke
of the invasion, other American and
British forces were punching the
German line full of holes all the
way to their Bocage country strong
hold below Caen. There Canadian
troops this morning opened a new
attack which threatened to curl
behind that hill and hedge bastion.
The main communications of the
peninsula were severed with the
capture of Rennes. The chief rail-
road to Brest runs through Rennes
and most OF the roads of the penin-
sula radiate froom the city, which
is the former capital of Brittany.
The possibility existed, however,
that the Germans would make a
fierce fight in a little Cherbourg"
at the huge French naval base of
Brest, at the tip of Brittany. The
Americans were about 100 miles
from Brest.
There also was possibility that
the Germans would make stubborn
fight to save their U-boat pens at
st. Nazaire, on the southern side of
the peninsula at the mouth of the
Loire River. At Rennes, the Amer
leans were 80 miles from st. Nazaire,
Montgomery Confident.
With the Allied bag of German
prisoners taken since D-day ap-
preaching 100000 and the Allies
breaking through at many points.
Gen. Sir Bernard L. MONTGOMERY
said:
I'VE are hitting the Hun a good
crack"
Grinning, he added, when is the
war going to end?"
st. Malo By-passed.
st. Malo, highly important port
across the Bay Of ST. Michel from
Normandy, apparently was being by
passed by the American columns
which had turned the corner into
Brittany.
Dinan is Is miles beyond Pontor-
son on the north side of the Brittany
Peninsula.
Lashing out in their new attack,
supported by another of the Allies
smashing aerial and artillery bonn
bardments which saturated the area
OF attack with steel and fire, Cana
-r(See FRANCE. page A-47