The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-08-21
Troops Cross Seine
 On Broad Front
CcOnsinued from Page D

Ing Co break across In a matter of days at the most, the plight of the Naxl 5th army appeared hopeless.
 At the same time. the two Allied Npearheads menaced the entire TO- bot bomb coast from Dieppe to Cal. ais, now defended only by the skel- etoni1ed German 18th army, most of those tanks and artillery had been drained off to bolster the 7th army ln Normandy.
 The German transocean agency sbald Yank paratroops and airborne tnfantrymen won he Seine crossing after an unsuccessful attempt to force the river by boat and pontoon bridge.
 Broaden Line
 Later Nazi broadcasts said the Americans broadened their line on the south bank of the river to more than 3 miles, faning out from Ver- non to Gallon, % miles northwest of Nantes. and down to the Mauldre and Orgeval rivers, the latter 10 miles below Nantes and only la miles northwest of Paris.
 Paris itself was a city under siege and. according to front dispatches ready to fall the moment Patton de- cided to send his armored power crashing through the city gates.
 Unconfirmed but apparently core rect reports said American tank pa- trols were cruising almost at will in the suburban Versatile area, only four miles from the outskirts, and United Press War Correspondents Robert c. Miller said other Ameri- can spearheads wer c lancing through the forest of Fontainebleau, l5 miles south of the city.
 Corbeid, IS miles south Of Paris, and Meiun, 8is miles farther south, were reported to have been pene- trated by Patton's armored units.
 Dominating Positions
 Other reports reaching Madrid from Vichy said American tanks and self-propelled artillery had reached terminating hill positions in the western suburban towns Of Muerdon and st. Cloud, the latter barely five miles from the heart Of the city. z Miller reported only feeble Ger man resistance in the Paris en- girons and other eyewitness accounts said equally weak opposition was encountered along the Seine cross ings. despite Nazi propagandada claims of fierce fighting for the . Nantes bridgehead,
 The fighting power of the Nazi 7th Army appeared to have been broken everywhere from Paris to the English Channel. and United Press dispatches from the front indicated that the enemy was racing full tilt from Normandy. leaving only small rear guards to face the onrushlng Allies.
 Al estimated 10000 Germans were trapped hopelessly in a pocket oi s less than 60 square miles in the Argentan-Trun-chambois triangle ? 100 miles west Of Paris, while the rest of the 7th Army was being . torn to shreds by Allied bombs and shells all the way to the Seine.
 British and Canadian units on the northern end Of the Allied line slnashed forward across the Dives and Vie river barriers on a broad . front. Along the channel coast they batled into the outskirts Of Cahourg, barely 20 airlines miles from the great port of Le Hayre, while the i5-inch rifles Of the British Monitor Erebus silenced NaA batteries in the coastal towEs $ of Houlgate and Beneryille' Just east of the Advancing British. { Miles from LlsieuX
 Farther inland, the Allies closed in 0n Dozule and drove to within about four miles west and five miles southwest Of Lisieux. key junction controlling the highways leading to the lower Seine. Liyapot, II miles south of LisieuS, vas taken by Canadian ist Army . troops yhile American, Canadian an . Polish units captured all oi Ar z gentan, Chambois. seven miles to Ire northeast, and Gace, 10 miles east of chambois.
 The capture o1 Gaee closed the