The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-08-26
Interpreting
The War
BY K1RKE L, SIMPSON
Associated Press War ana,.

war Analyst
Graphic eye witness accouu..
OF the liberation Of Paris And
the surrender of the Nazj g.r.; -"
highlighted the war news fro
Europe for lay readers. but !. ,
on the Seine, both above ~,
low the city that even prin rim oe'
events for shattered German sf
mics were being enacted dr.
1t was there that military !.
velopments more potent than p os'
is regained by its rejoicina nood d.
were taking shape even t F[Ople
partially masked by a signjficasal
Allied official silence '''''ant
Paris had been written "a !,
days in the Allied Campaign ior
certain to fall. The psychologists
effect upon French Patriot n T,ss'
ings elsewhere in France or ' ,'.
other Nazi conquered people is p rat
to be fully assessed. Its inor se.
too, upon strictly military far+os.
In the European war equation :;
yet to be gagged, 1t could ~
celerate German defeat At NY ~
not even the most optimistic n nGIs
tary minds have yet considered nn
sible. POS'
Even so, Paris in the cold and
grim light of military strategy gov'
erning Allied operations in Frapco
still is an incident of the BATH
not a major or decisive victory
And it is war to a decision tb.t
American, British, and French Az
mics are waging, war to thu
death with German soldiers and
Nazi Germany.
Down the Seine death or surren.
der faced another segment of heat.
en- German armies. junction of
Canadian column with Americans
at Louviers appeared to have
split in two the pocket west and
south of the Seine from which
remnants of broken German ar.
mics are desperately seeking es.
cape across the river. 1t doomed
those caught west and south Of
the Canadian American junction
to the same fate that made Nai
charnel house of the Falaise Agen.
tan pocket.
What that may mean for the
remainder of German forces west
of the wide Seine estuary below
| Rouen is yet to be learned. Their
| peril is great, their hope of cross.
ing the river under convergins Al.
i lied fire by land and air growing
simmer every hour. The final de.
struction of the Nazi Seventh ar.
my and Fifteenth army elements
which had been called futilely to
it's aid is very close.
That is a first rank Allied OBJ
iective. There is mounting evidence
it is so near complete success in
the lower Seine area that the Ger.
man high command has already
abandoned hope of stalling the at.
tack for long on the river. Allied
air scouts report a German flight
to the Somme Marine line now
in progress, harried by bombing
attacks.
There is every reason to accept
that estimate of the situation as
accurate. 1t bears out German un'
official broadcasts that a general
retreat in France, detachment
as the Nazi spokesman like to say
is under way.
But southeast of Paris up the
Seine, the Loire and the Rhone
American columns are moving un'
der a tight censorship screen that
hints at even greater blows for
the foe in the making.
Once the junction of the northern
and southern American invasion
forces is effected-and it must %
near if Lyon has fallen to French
Epatriots-the most decisive batlle
of the war in the west may take
shape on the upper Marine, the
Meuse, the Mosselle, the Rhine ana
the Saar just as they were tougn'
:, in the First World War.
History seems to be repeating
itself in France as Allied troops
flow across northern and southern
invasion beaches and through Selr
ed French ports to deploy Tor I"
final phases of the war on Ger
many.