The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-06-26

General or UnlJe uSVaLeS rOEceS Before Cherbourg."
 Gorrell said the break through in southwest Cherbourg appears to make a German reply to the final American ultimatum unnecessary"
 Crack Amercian units raced to be the first to enter Cherbourg, he said. Officially, the southwestern suburbs were penetrated in strength yesterday afternoon, and since then the assault forces chopped deeper into the city.
 Tt can now be said the city is ours" Gorrell said, at the same time reporting desperate resistance by the Nazis at number of strong points.
 It. Gen. Omar N. Bradely's tri- umphant forces already had reached the sea a mile east of the port and the official German DINE news agency acknowledged that they also had captured the town area" and the Cherbourg arsenal, the latter on the west side midway between the seaplane base and the shipbuilding yards.
 GA German broadcast in French to European areas outside the Reich said the Fortress of Cher bourg" fell at g p. m. yesterday German time, EGG monitors report ed, but other German broadcasts asserted that Heavy fighting was continuing at the port)
 DNB said the last radio message from the Cherbourg garrison was received at 8 D. m. (German Time) yesterday, stating: The last strug- gle for Cherbourg has started. The general is fighting with his tropos. Long live the Fuehrer and Ger manyl"
 Nazis ReejCt
 The German commander, It. Gen. Wilhelm Von Schlieben, re- jected repeated American demands for the surrender fo the garrison by declining to reply, DNB said.
 But all Allied sources expected the occupation of Cherbourg, their largest port in France and railhead of & double-track trunk line to Paris, to come momentarily, and a Farsi broadcast hinted the next phase of the lo-American in- vasion already was under way.
 British and Canadian forces have launched a full-scale offensive be- tween Tilly-Sur-Seuelle and Cain at the eastern end of the beachhead the Paris radio said, and fleet of $50 landing craft, carrying 250,000 men and protected by warships, has been cruising in Seine Bay for 48 hours, presumably in connection with landing attempts in the dives estuary, IS miles northeast of Caen,
 The main German survivors, their backs to the sea were making their last stand from fortified dwellings and other buildings in a narrowing pocket on the approaches to the docks and the naval base, while other enemy forces fought to the death from surrounded Fort Du Roule and other encircled and by passed strongholds on the edge of the city.
 It was a no quarter battle. Inside the city, American assault troops cleared the enemy from hastily-im- provised strong points with ma chine guns, rifles, bayonets and grenades. By-passed forts were re- duced by dynamite dropped through the embrasures and by heavy artil- lery and naval bombardment.
 Hundreds of Germans were sur- rendering, but the enemy still had not cracked completely. Only few thousand of the estimated 30,000 in the doomed garrison have been &C., counted for so far.
 Pail Of Smoke
 Front dispatches said the Ger mans still were dynamiting port in- stallations and a pail of smoke hung over the docks, but pilots returning from reconnaissance flights over Cherbourg said the installations had not been wrecked as much as had been feared. At worst, experts pre- dicted they could start supplies moving through the port within 4S hours of its capture and rapidly i1- crease its capacity.
 American shock troops broke into Cherbourg soon after noon yester- day simultaneously from the south, northeast and west while American and British battlesships, cruisers pinned down the defeners with broadsides from two miles offshore. The German DNB Agency said the Allies lost two cruisers and suf- fered heavy losses in an attempt to force the port from the sea. But this was not confirmed by any Allied source.
 Fort Equerdreville, guarding the western approaches of Cherbourg ran up the white flag at 12:50 p. m. after a heavy mortar barrage. The Americans swept on past the race course into the city itself, with one column heading for the Cherbourg hospital in an effort to hberate wounded American prisoners.
 Heavy machine-gun and artillery fire was encountered in some out skirts, but others were penetrated with comparative ease. However, all forces ran into stiff resistance on reaching the inner city and a halt was called at dusk for the final bat tie at dawn.
 Though by-passed and encircled, Fort Du Roule, on the southeastern rim of Cherbourg, still was holding out last night. The Fort was sur rendered by German major and ls0 men yesterday morning, but later in the day they reentered the huge stronghold by a subterranean passage and re-captured 1t.
 Henry T. Gorrell, United Press War correspondent, reported at g o'clock last night that two Amer ican forces were assaulting the fortress, one from the south in a frontal attack and another from the northeast, the rear.
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