Evening star., 1944-08-20
Yanks Almost in Paris Suburbs;
Other Forces Advance to Seine;
Planes Batter Fleeing Germans
Nozis Report.
Americans in
Nantes, Vernon
MAP on Page A-5.)
By the Associated Press.


SUPREME ALLIED HEAD
QUARTERS, Sunday, Aug. 90
Speedy American reconnaissance
patrols stabbed nearly into the
suburbs of Paris yesterday and
columns of 1t. Gen. George S.
Patton's Sd Army reached the
Seine River Is miles west Of the
French capital as the Allies fash
ioned a tremendous knockout
blow against the German armies
in France.
Explosions and fires were re-
ported lin Paris as the Germans
apparently FASTENED ruthless demo-
litions preparatory to abandoning
the city without fight.
The Swiss radio said American
forces already were in the Paris
suburbs. Allied sources did not
confirm this. but they placed Gen
Patton's patrols very near, and
truck-borne doughboys were shout
ing, Paris next!'
British papers all headlined re-
ports that the Americans were in
Paris, but all were quoting German
or neutral rumors without con-
firmation.
Destruction of the German Army,
not the immediate liberation of
Paris, remained the Allied goal,
and this was proceeding rapidly.
Falaise Gap Sealed Off.
The Falaise Gap. where much of
the German 7th Army was destroyed
in a week of seige, finally was
sealed off entirely, and the fleeing
enemy remnants which raced away
from it under the worst aerial
securing in history. found only that
they had run into bigger trap
against the meandering and bridge
less Seine.
While latest reports here put the
Americans only at unspecified dis
tances a few hundred yards from
German communique acknowledged
that Gen. Patton's forward elements
already had fought to both Nantes
and Vernon, 30 and As miles down.
stream from Paris.
This would envelop the Germans
in an area roughly SIS miles square
between the Seine, the sea, the
British and Canadians and the
Americans, with perilous crossing
of the river as their only hope of
escape.
Front line dispatches passed by
field cenSors asserted the Germans
in France had been beaten and that
the Americans could advance on
Paris any time they wanted to. In
stead of doing so at once, they
apparently chose for the second
time in 10 days to let that glitter
- ing prize dangle for a time while
they sought out and killed more
Germans.
Remnants of 18 Divisions.
The remnants of at least Is Ger
man divisions from the Falaise trap
already were spread out in TO
mile stretch from there to Dreux,
jump off point for the American
dash to the Seine.
The German 7th Army, bolstered
by elements of the 18th Army from
the Calais coast, has not been de-
stroyed," wrote Associated Press
Correspondent William S. White
with the American 1st Army, but
he declared the Germans had left
thousands of casualties behind in
salvaging much of their armor for
the dash to the Seine.
The remnants Of the 7th Army
and their reinforcements from the
18th were believed to have little
chance of ferrying their armor
across the Seine even If they should
beat the main Allied body to the
river crossings.
Rearguards of the two forces
fought desperately to hold back the
onrushing American, British, and
Canadian armies which were driv-
ing along the coast, and hurdling
river barriers inland in drives which
at one point before Lisieux, an i'm
portant roadhead, were no more
than 48 miles from Rouen, the
Germans river port.
Their forces bringing up the rear
north of Trun were suffering heavy
casualties. Before them as they
headed north was the Seine, $50 or
more yards wide, where Allied aerial
(See FRANCE, Page A-4D