The Wilmington morning star., 1944-08-12
BIG AMERICAN ARMORED OFFENSIVE
7HREA TENS TO TRAP l0Q 900 MAZzS
REPORTED FLEEING WEST OF PARIS
|BRADLEY'S TANKS
| MOVING AT WILL
Enemy Apparently Unable
To Parry Blows Rained
Down On All Sides i

SUPREME HEADQUAR-
TIERS ALLIED EXPED1-,
TIONARY FORCE, Satur-s
day, Aug. 12.-(P)-U. S.
tanks battled to close a 49,
mile escape gap on an esti-
mated 100000 Germans re-
ported in retreat west of Pas
ris last night while other
wide-ranging armor struck
out suddenly from Nantes,
burst across the Loire river
barrier to southern France
and plunged ten miles be-
yond. -
American armor in apparents
control Of the field, was lashing
out in every direction across he
northern plains of France and moi
where did the Germans seem able
to parry the rain of blows, such
as this new one across the Loire.
''The great bulk of the German
forces in northwest Europe are in
bad way" Gen. Sir Bernard L.
Montgomery, chief of Allied
ground forces, messaged his troops
in France. 1--WE are round behind
them in many places and it is
possible some of them may not
get away"
1t. Gen. Omar N Bradley's
forces striking north from lie Mans
were closing in on the entire Ger
man Seventh Army-which nee
boosted. over 80 divisions-and the
Paris radio declared they already
had driven through Alencon, 80
miles south of where Canadian
forces were fighting before Fa-
laise.
At the southern end Of the front,
his. thrust across the broad reach,
es Of the Loire within "a hours
after the river port of Nants fell
still had encountered no resistance
in strength.
American troops were mopping
up along the north bank between
Nantes and Anglers, which also
was captured yesterday, but there
was no word of any crossings.
AS the Germans were confront.
ed with the same sort of peril
with which they ,bewildered this
French in the 1910 lightning war,
captured troops reported that Field
| Marshal Gen. Guenther Won Kulgs
had given the signal for a general
retreat.
This was apparent from an ar
ray of field dispatches reporting
a march of conquest through Nor.
mandy, including British advances
along six mile front east Of
Wire and their capture of the hill
top fortress of Thury Harcourt.
IA miles south of Caen in the rug
ged country known as 'tNormandy's
Switzerland
Allied medium bombers pounded
away at the German anti-tank
screen which has held up the Ca
nadans before Fa1aise, but even
this enemy stand might be coy
ering action for a general withdraw
al.
General Bradley kept his drives
radiating from lie Mans cloaked
by almost complete silence, leav-
ing the enemy guessing at which
might be feints and which the big
punch capable Of dealing them =
knockout
available information indicated
Paris might not be one of the i'm.
mediate detectives of the sweeping
American advance and that the AL.
lied command wa pursuing the
primary aim of any well directed
campaign, to destroy the enemy
armies.
(Thrusts in the Paris direction
might be merely feints to divert
enemy forces from more impor.
tant battlefields. Headquarters
maintaine da close and mysterious
silence concerning reports of prog
ress on the road to Paris which
named several cities as having
been reached but which remained
without official confirm atom