Evening star., 1944-08-21
j. ..Fronce
Continued From First Page }

an all-night battle last night, with
the result still obscure today.
Farther east, below Chambois
rocket-flring Typhons and Canadian
troops broke up an attack by &c
tanks attempting to force way out
of the second trap yesterday.
Thirty-three tanks were reported
destroyed in the two suicide lunges
Gunners poured fire over open
sights into the pockets. Field guns
antitank guns and even aintiair-
craft guns blasted shells into milling
masses of Germans.
Severe Nazi Losses.
A British staff officer was quoted
as saying of the night breakout at
tempt, we do not know yet how
many Germans got out, but we
know they suffered severe losses"
More than $500 trapped Ger
mans were captured yesterday
1900 on the British front alone.
Supreme headquarters announced
the capture of Argentan, on the
southern edge of the now-closed
escape gap of the original Normandy
pocket.
On the left flank of the Allied
offensive, which is forcing Marshal
Guenther Won Kluge's forces back
on the Seine, British troops push
ing along the coast toward Trou-
vile and LIE Havre drove deeper into
Cabourgs outskirts. Cabourg is
about Is miles from the mouth of
the Seine
The gigantic Allied drive to en-
velop Won Kluge's crushed forces
was hemming the battered German
columns into a 75-mile-wide area
between Vernon, on the Seine Al
miles northwest of Paris and
Cabourg.
The fall of Paris appeared Incl
dental to the much greater stakes
+ for which Gen. Eisenhower was
playing-complete destruction of the
German 7th Army and its Inflated
relnforcements from the 18th Army.
One Allied officer said. we're shak-
ing the tree to uproot the German
Army, not primarily to get the
fruit"
| A dispatch from the Spanish bor-
der reported the Germans were
fleeing north in efforts to get out
OF France, and it appeared the Ger
mans were abandoning all of France
south of Paris.
Taking advantage of bad weather,
the Germans are trying to Zee
across the Seine toward Dieppe and
the Pas e-Calais area along four
crossings between Elbeuf and the
sea, IS airline miles away. RAF
Mosquitoes attacked their crossing
attempts in that area last night.
Pounded on Every Side.
Won Kluge's troops are fleeing
from pocket to pocket. With the
se-Argentan gap closed, the
Nazis now are trapped south of the
Seine and are being hammered on
every side. The news of the Amer
ican crossing at Nantes means that
even if the Germans get across the
Seine they are in a position to be
trapped by Gen. Patton's men.
No direct assault was being made
on Paris. The Germans were fan
ming out few miles to the south to
counter American patrols. There
were reports that the French under
ground was engaging the Germans
In the streets of the capital.
The American sweep across the
Seine to the northwest and the
push to positions to the southeast
threatens to envelop the capital,
leaving 1t in an undefendable posi-
ton where it will have to fall.
De Gaulle in Cherbourx.
The arrival of Gen. Charles de
Gaulle. head of the French Commit
tee of National Liberation, in Cher
bourg clearly indicates that Paris is
expected soon to be in Allied hands
Along the coast the British NAVY |
pitched in to help the land opera.
tions when it engaged long, trouble