Evening star., 1944-07-16
Yanks Drive to Lessay Suburbs
And Slash Ahead Toward St. Lo:
Russians Make Sweeping Gains
Nozis Expecting
British Offensive
InCuen Sector
By the Associated Press.

SUPREME ALLIED HEAD
QUARTERS, Sunday, July 49,
United States troops rolling up
the German western flank in an
unSpectacular but relentless ad-
vance yesterday smashed into
the outskirts of Lessay and the
fall of that Axis coastal anchor
town was expected soon.
German broadcasts said. big
drive was imminent in the British
Canadian sector around Caen on the
eastern end of the Normandy front
and field dispatch from that area
said German demolition crews had
begun blowing up smokestacks in the
factories of Colombelles, miles
northeast of Caen. Such wrecking
usually precedes a German with
drawal, but this dispatch said there
were no other signs the Germans
were pulling out.
The capture Of Lessay on the west
coast of the Cherbourg Peninsula
probably would force a German
withdrawal of several miles on a
broad front.
Headquarters communiQue No. 80
issued at 1870 pm. last night said
the north bank of the Ay River just
outside Lessay had been reached on
a front of several miles.
Within 1000 Yards of st. Lo.
Front dispatches also reported that
other Yank forces had penetrated
to within 2 miles of the impor-
tant road junction of Periers, and
to within 1000 yards of the bitterly
defended mid-Normandy communi-
cations center of st. Lo. Allied air.
men despite the worst weather
since D-day bombed and strafed
enemy troops and artillery positions
around ST. Lo from a minimum al
titude.
Periers is miles southeast of
imperiled Lessay, and st. Lo, hinge
city at the other end of the churn-
ing American front, is 20 miles
southeast of Lessay. The usual bit
ter house-to-house fighting was ex-
pected from German rearguards left
In Lessay to protect the withdrawal
of the main Nazi forces to higher
and more readily defensible ground
south Of Lessay.
The villages Of st. Opportune,
Pissot and st. Patrice de Claids were
taken in the enveloping movement
on Lessay, the communique said
Farther east in the thrust close to
Periers the Americans fought their
way through Gongreville and Nay
and reached the Seves River.
Allied airmen shot down two of
80 enemy aircraft encountered near
Caen during the day without them
selves suffering loss. Antiaircraft
eunners in the eastern sector also
shot down five enemy aircraft Fri
-day, the bulletin said.
Americans Aided by Artillery.
One enemy E-boat was set afire
and others damaged when inter-
cepted in Seine Bay as they were
attempting to make a foray west
ward from lie Havre.
At midnight reports reaching
headquarters said the Americans
attacking outside st. Lo under big
artillery barrage had gained 500
more yards in their fight across some
of the toughest military terrain.
Other units operating midway be-
tween St. Lo and Periers were
within 2 miles of the road con-
Meeting those two cities after ad-
vancing l mile from Chaps de
lOsque to the edge of Remilly-sur-
Lozon.
A German broadcast last night
quoted the Nazi high command as
saying big push by Gen. Sir Ber-
nard L. Montgomery from the Caen
area was imminent and was being
heralded by an intensified artillery
barrage.
The British still are examining
more and more troops into the for
ward lines" said the German bulle-
tin, "but the fire of field guns and
naval artillery has been intensi-.
fled to such pitch that new at
tacks southwest of Caen and east
(See INVASION Page A-5)