The Wilmington morning star., 1944-08-29
Interpreting
The War
BY KIRKE L. SIMPSON
Associated Press War

dark picture for the Nazi ia 4
valley of the Seine to til. no ny
and that of the Rhone in the , .UIa
but they are significantly siler NUN
to the situation in between tbs tr' az
invasion fronts in east ce0 's0,
France. central
They fail to record the vb.,.
abouts of most advanced elems..' '
of Eisenhower's and patch's fnsa s
reaching for a junction uh;
would drive the foe out Of al S't
the northeast corner of France s W.,
expose Germany itself to a co onu
bined attack. wills
In the south sudden erur..
by Patch's troops into the ceptsa i
Rhone valley north of Montelim.a.
has trapped the bulk of Germaa
troops racing from the Rhone dai
ia area for escape. The site !.
the narrowest sector Of the Rbor.
valley, fanked by the foothills ~,
the Alps to tn eeast and tbs ,.~
trail mountain mass of France IA
the west. All traffic from the Mod
lterranean coast up the Rhone val.
ley tunnels through the MonteE
mar-Valence bottleneck, str,
some 20 miles long and less than
half that wide through which AL
rail and road connections squeeze
their way north. French patriot
forces dominate the western hills
and the French and American
troops hold all the high ground IA
the east. Allied air armadas ar.
reported concentrating on German
troops endeavoring to fight their
way out of the trap above Mon.
telimar.
In the north Eisenhower's ar.
mics are now astride the Sem.
for 200 mile stretch from near
its rise to south of Rouen on the
Seine estuary. A half-score bridge.
heads east of the Seine exclusive
of its crossing in Paris itself are
noted to indicate huge new Al.
lied wheeling movement swinging
to grind enemy forces out of all
northeast France. Southeast Of
Paris American armored columns
are already on the battlefield Of
World War 1.
It seems clear that with elimina.
ton of virtually all Of the deadly
pocket for the foe west of the
Seine except close to the coast be.
low Rouen, General Montgomery,
Allied field commander in the
north, is shifting his American ele.
ments southeastward. Two Cana.
dian crossings of the river close to
Rouen are reported and two British
bridgeheads above that. The origi.
nal American Seine crossing near
: Nantes seems to be the left Of
the American part of the line now.
American forces supplemented
by the Second French Armored d.
vision in Paris hold the rest of the
Seine line to Troyes or beyond but
south of that point there is an Of
! fetal black out on information as
to the whereabouts of rowing col.
umns between the Seine and the
Loire. The present location OF But
ler's Task Force" the Seventh Ar.
NV unit which took Grenoble and
reached the Franco Swiss border
near Geneva several days ago, al.
so is unrevealed. A presumable
gap nearly 200 miles wide still sep
arates the two invasion forces al.
though actually they may be much
nearer an effective junction to split
enemy forces in France wide apart
from the Swiss frontier to the
channel.
At the moment that junction is
made the question of a single over.
all Allied command in France must
arise. Eisenhower and Patchs ar
mics would become available fof
combined action to storm across
the old battle fields toward the
upper Rhine while British, cana
dian and other Allied troops on
the left drove eastward between
Paris and the sea. 1t is to be as
sumed that French forces unaef
Patch, once their task in the SouH
is completed, would be shuttled u
the Paris area to take position Ill
the center of the Allied line as tney
stood in the last war.
Whether merging OF the TWO III
vasion armies in France Wouio III
clude a consolidation with 'iia'
front for command purposes OF ul'
! Italian sector also is yet 10 DE- 10
vealed. 1t would seem loslca,
development as the French Nv
Italian campaigns are obviously !.
: terdependent tactically a n shs
logically. There can be little oouo,
however. that once the two French
, invasion forces are merged a SIN
ole over all command VIII
o emerge.