The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-08-19
GERMAN ROCKET COAST ARMY
WRECKED IN GREAT VICTORY;
ALLIES 7HREAT ElNzNG TOUZON
DRIVE ON PARIS "
SWINGS FORWARD
Allied Armies Reported
Only II Miles Away
From Capital

SUPREME HEADQUAR.
TIERS ALLIED EXPEDI-
TIONARY FORCE, Saturday,
Aug. 19.-(P-The bulk of
the German 18th army guard
ing the north French rocket
coast has been thrown into
an eleventh hour attempt to
avert a Normandy debacla
and has gone down to a de-
feat that may spell an Allied
victory in the battle for
France, it was disclosed Off
cially last night.
Mighty Allied forces were driv.
ing the beaten 18th and Seventh arr
mics toward the all but bridgeless
Seine, and 1t. Gen. George S. Pat
toms tanks smashing to the vicini-
ty of Paris-only II miles away by
German accounts-had blocked off
their retreat toward the French
capital.
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower sum-
moned his field commanders to
an urgent conference which soon
may be reflected in new and over
whelming blows to break the Ger
man grip on the whole of France.
The surging lines were develop
ing a great enveloping movement
west of Paris, where a senior Bril-
fish officer disclosed the Germans
had rashly committed roughly half
their crack 18th Army.
This was the first intimation that
Field Marshal Gen. Guenther Won
Kluge had brought across the Seine
important elements of his army
guarding the Channel coast and
the rocket roosts to try to extricate
the already battered Seventh from
the pitfalls of Normandy. f.
Americans, British, Canadians,
Poles, Dutch and Belgians - the
last two disclosed for the first
time to be in action-were in hot
pursuit of the estimated 10000 to
100000 enemy troops who had
squeezed from the Normandy poo
ket with the bulk of their tanks
and were heading toward Rouen.
They strewed behind them the
wreckage of tanks and vehicles
under ceaseless assault from tao
teal bombers, whose pilots re-
ported the Germans were in such
headlong flight they did not even
pull off the highways when the
planes roared over.
The unexpected news that the
18th Army, which on DDay was
the greatest German army in
France, had been committed to a
lost cause in Normandy, came from
the staff officer at 21st Army group
headquarters, who hkened it's fate
to that of the broken Seventh army.
The staff officer declared their
offsneive power was spent, that
from here on these German forces
were capable only of rearguard
action, and that in winning the
battle of Normandy the Allies will
have won the battle of France.
Both the Seventh and 15th-the
only striking force the Germans
had along the Atlantic wall-were
estimated to have had up to Is
divisions at D-Day.
Half of the 18th army, it is es-
timated, was thrown into the lost
battle of Normandy in the last
two weeks and has been badly
mauled. Requirements brought in
to guard the Channe1 are believed
to be low grade and spread all the
way through the low countries.
(The United Nations radio at
Algiers said 100000 Germans had
been put out of action in northern
France and $4,000 more were sur
rounded in the ports of Brittany.C
The hesitant German command,
not knowing where Allied blows
were coming from, sent these inn
portant elements of the 18th into
the caldron of battle Sin pieces and
too late" the British officer said.
-V-