Evening star., 1944-07-29
Henry
Continued From First Page.

ture the island, White Witches" at
the confluence of the Seves and
Ay Rivers. The sector has attract
ed little attention.
Today Bruce Grant OF the Chi
cago Times and l tossed coin to
decide whether to spend the day
with an armored unit approaching
Coutances from the east, with scant
hope OF entering tonight, or spend
the day getting full details of the
island battle.
The latter won. but we couldn't
find unit headquarters and military
police directed us an unbelievable
number Of miles southwark, until
tonight we must be way behind the
German lines.
We found, after the islands fall
German resistance had crumbled
and tired troops had pushed south
against only occasional machine
gun fire to capture the city of
Periers last night.
! We entered the utterly deserted
and smoked city, once the place OF
5000 inhabitants. 1t was now
scarcely anything but enormous piles
of rubble which bulldozers must
clear.
Statue Still Stands.
But amid the rubble is the old
church statue Of ST. Joseph standing
erect. unscathed. l have witnessed
this phenomenon so often from
Bizerte onward that I grow tired
OF repetition. but every case is true.
In the midst of the rubble hea D
in the city square was a group of
military police which included Miles
Harrison, 1919 North Rolfe street,
Arlington. Va.
A souvenir collected by the MPs
was a 1918 American bayonet, lying
in German trench. But the unit
already had left Periers, supposed
to be their final objective.
Starting at dawn, they pushed
forward. taking almost unscathed
the town of St. Saveur Lendelin. !
found the town in charge of Mai
William Russell, 1886 Langdrum
lane, Chevy Chase, Md, and 1t
Walter Osborne. former member OF
Newsweek's Washington staff.
! There the village boys were wildly
pealing the bell of the 18th century
church in celebration of the liber-
alton. The handful of people re-
manning were jubilantly hospitable
Most United States soldiers were
wearing plumes of pink hydrangeas
on their helmets and every passing
car pelted flowers, Folks said the
Germans moved out yesterday, driv-
Ing before them 100 horses and &C
COWS from the communal pastures
In Marshes de Marchesieulx, famous
horse-breeding country.
Many Hostages Taken.
! They also had taken most of the
inhabitants. possibly as hostages
They report several thousand civil
ians were herded south of Coutances
during the past several days.
At Saveur the infantry was halted
and an armored unit was passing
through. l was told there was NO
difficulty entering Coutances. The
first tanks already were through
the city.
walked several miles along tank
column to a hilltop, where 20 Ger
mans were coming out side road
holding up white flags They sur
rendered to MPs, including Sergt
Harold Vauan of Richmond, Va.
The tanks stretched clean to
Coutances. The many-spired city
spread below seemed undamaged. !
walked into the city, finding the
body of tanks halted before mine
field, where one tank had just been
blown up and engineers were laying
white tape.
Six tanks, commanded by 1t. Carl
Rolvaag of st. Paul, Mimi, had
passed through as spearhead, and
a second platoon, commanded by 1t
Marcelle Dragoo of Houston, Tex.
was ready to proceed.
A cooperative Polish prisoner
showed the locations of mines. The
infantry crossed the mine fields.
flushing out snipers.
The city was too hot for much
investigation, but the major historic
attraction, the ancient Norman
abbey church on hilltop. appar-
entity was undamaged. Many streets
were badly smashed up by bombs,
but the damage was mild compared
to that of Periers.
There was no difficulty staying in
the city, but I was pinned down by
some sniper fire trying to get out.
BY late afternoon the westward
drive had pushed through the
pockets of resistance close to the
city's eastern outskirts.
The complete lack of resistance to
the north was astounding, but there
was every evidence the Germans
had made a complete and orderly
retreat with all equipment. There
was none of the clothes, rubbish,
weapons and wounded along the
roads which characterizes a hasty
withdrawal.