Evening star., 1944-08-31
Eisenhower Confiden'
Allies Will Garry
Fight Into Germany
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
SUPREME ALLIED HEAD
QUARTERS, Aug. 3l.-Gen. Els
enhower announced today that
1t. Gen. Omar N. Bradley had
taken his place as a full field
commander Of American armies
in Northern France in equal
status to Gen. Sir Bernard L.
Montgomery and declared con-
fldently his forces would carry
the fight into Germany, newt
ably and decisively.
Gen. Bradley, mild Missouri in
fantry specialist, hitherto has been
officially subordinate to Gen. Mont
gomery, who commanded all ground
troops In Northern France under
Gen. Eisenhower Gen. Bradley,
however, has assumed great stature
by directing his 1st and Sd Ameri-
can Armies in the break k-through
from st. Lo across the Brest PENN
sula, beyond Paris and to the ap-
proaches of Belgium and Germany
Gen. Eisenhower. smiling ard
bronzed, stood before q huge battle
map of Northern France streaked
with red arrows of his troop gains
toward Belgium and the Rhine and
spoke with a firm voice of confidence
in victories won and Others yet
ahead.
Foresaw German Strategy.
He asserted the Allied command
has been able to foresee the whole
German strategy. one of rigid de-
fense In which the enemy staked all
and lost all, from the first five days
after the Normandy landings on
June 6.
The supreme commander revealed
the NaN decision to fight in and out
at Caen in an attempt to hold on
well south of the Seine, rather than
withdrawing and fighting a delaying
action back to some better defense
system with more direct lines of
supply and reinforcement, made the
German strategy clear.
Gen. Eisenhower emphasized
again the unity of thought and CO.
operation at his headquarters and
among his commanders, and de-
clared that to this day there never
has been any sharp difference of
opinion among those who constitute
his command team.
Warm in Praise of MONTGOMERY.
He described Gen. Montgomery
as not only his close and warm
friend, but one of the greatest SOL
diers of this or any other war.
He emphasized the change was
In no way the slightest reflection on
Monty" nor demotion for him.
The exact time when the division
of responsibility was reached was
not specified. But Gen. Eisenhower
said it was not effective at the time
that the report of the division first
came out fortnight ago.
Gen. Eisenhower said he regarded
1t as essential to have a single field
commander with full responsibility
until the breakout after invasion,
hence Gen. Montgomery was ap-
pointed with full approval of the
Americans.
Now that the breakout has oc-
CURED, it is possible to effect the,
final stage Of the command system
as planned all along, Gen. Eisen-
hover said.
The commander said the French
had come to him last week end with
an urgent request that troops IN
strength parade through Paris at
once. when fighting still was going
on in the city suburbs, as a means
of reassuring the people. Originally,
1t had been planned to let the
French I'd Armored Division do the
parading with only a handful of
British and Americans.
But, due to the urgency of the
request, he had to send in what
was available-the French division
and the American 4th Infantry
Gen. Eisenhower said even these
were not parading so much as
marching through the city on the
shortest route to the battlefelds.
The British were not represented
by a division only because none
was near enough.
Gen. Eisenhower said he regretted
greatly that Gen. Montgomery could
not be there with him to see the
liberation, but that the British COM
mander was too busy on the fighting
front.
Out of desire to keep the Ger
mans guessing about his intentions
in Pas-de- Calais, the general re-
fused to comment on German robot
bombs except to say that personally
he didn't like them. He recalled
with a chuckle that he had been
accused of moving his advance COM
mand post to France just to get
away from them.
Commenting on the vaunted Ger
man frontier fort chain, he said no
defense system is better than the
men who defend it.
Gen. Eisenhower seemed con-
vinced that the Germans were
scraping the bottom of the barrel
for forces to brace their broken
western front.
Possible Denmark Evacuation.
Answering a question, he said
that if the Allies drove into Bel
gium and the Netherlant5, the Ger
mans probably would be forced tol
pull out of Denmark.
He praised efforts of the French
Forces of the Interior as more effec-
tive than most people had thought
they could be-
The general wanted once to refer
to the Siegfried Line-the Germans
hope for defense of their homeland
frontier-but he could not remem-
ber It's name He grinned sheepish-
ly and let correspondents prompt
him.
Gen. Eisenhower did not permit
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