Evening star., 1944-06-13
Montgomery Praises
Yank Triumph After
Hanging by Eyelids'
By ROGER GREEN,

Associated Press War CORRESPONDENT.
WITH ALLIED TROOPS IN
FRANCE, June IL Delayed Gen.
Sir Bernard L. Montgomery an
nounced tonight that approximately
1000 prisoners have been captured
in France, including some japanese.
Ut was officially estimated last
night at Allied headquarters that
10000 prisoners had been cap
tured on the Normandy 'front.'
"A great many of the enemy have
been killed" Gen. Montgomery add
ed at press conference.
The apanese-regular soldiers,
not merely observers-were fighting
alongside their Axis partners. Mont
gomery said. Small numbers of
them have already been taken
prisoner and others killed.
Outspokenly pleased with the feats
of American troops, Montgomery
said the beach where the landing
of the Americans took place east of
the Carentan estuary was found
being defended by a German divi-
sion which was not coastal divi-
sion. 1t was very good division
and fought very well. German pris-
oners said the division had just
been brought up from behind to
thicken the crust of the coastal de-
fenses and it actually was in the
process of carrying out exercises
when the Americans attacked.
Hanging on by Eyelids.
There was very heavy fighting on
that American beach all D-day.
swaying back and forth, and by the
end of the day the Americans were
not more than 100 yards inland and
were hanging on by their eyelids.
You can imagine Americans do
ing that. 1t was very unpleasant,
very tricky. There is no doubt about
1t that the American troops did alb
solutely magnif1cently in recovering
from that very unpleasant situation,
and today these same troops are
miles inland-very good, very good
indeed"
Montgomery said the situation
was retrieved by three things:
First. by the gallantry of the
American soldier, who Is a very
brave man.
Second, by the grand supporting
fire given from the sea and by the
Allied navy.
And third, by the support given
from the air by the fighter bombers,
who knew the situation and came
down low to shoot up Germans at
close range.
Pleased With Operations.
"The retrieving Of that situation
Is probably one of the finest things
done in this operation-very fine,
very fine. indeed. Wonderful"
Wearing a gray turtleneck
sweater, fawned-colored corduroy
trousers and his famous black Tank
Corps beret, the Allied ground force
chief spoke to some 40 front-line
correspondents for more than an
hour while Allied planes roared over
head and the guns of battle thun-
dered across the gently rolling Nor
mandy hills in the distance.
THE beaches are now behind us"
he said. The violence, power and
speed of our initial assault carried
us over the beaches and inland very
quickly.
THAT was my initial instruction
to the senior officers. I said that
every man must be imbued with one
idea-to penetrate quickly and
deeply into enemy country and peg
out claims inland. And that was
done.
Must Penetrate Quickly.
The conception that you land on
the beaches and get little bridge
head and then dig in-that Is no
good. You must penetrate quickly
and deeply.
I'VE have suffered losses because
the Germans in pillboxes remained
behind our lines. Also there were
a considerable number Of German
snipers. All that had to be cleaned
up.
There Is still one pocket of Ger
mans holding out, but I think they
are leaving at the moment"
Montgomery said the snipers in
cluded women-who had been killed
in the act of shooting at Allied
troops.
Some Of these women were identi-
fed as Germans, while others were
camp followers of the Nazi defense
forces in France. Special prison
camps have been prepared in Britain
for these women, while others who
were wounded are in Allied military
hospitals.