Evening star., 1944-08-29
Drive FIunkinq
Pas de Calais
Robot Area
MAP on Page A-3.)
Ey the Associated Press.

SUPREME ALLIED HEAD
QUARTERS. Aug. 29-Swiftly
advancing American troops to-
day captured historic Chateau
Thierry and scissors in whirl-
wind advances which carried
them over French soil hallowed
by their fathers blood to within
SIS miles of Belgium and a scant
100 from the German frontier.
The triumphs at -Thierry
and scissors cracked the German
Aisne-Somme line and moved the
Allies with Is miles of the cathedral
of Reims, 18th largest city in France.
Fighting on ground where the men
of 1918 routed the Germans in the
Second Battle of the Marine, the
GIs of 1914 swept through Chau-
teau-Thierry and raced northward
25 miles into scissors in a thrust
which was rapidly flanking the
whole Pas de Calais department
where the Germans launch their
robot bombs.
A new and more deadly trap
might be forming around the rem
nants of the German 7th Army,
broken in Normandy, and the 18th
Army in Pas de Calais.
At Scissors, where the old lst
and I'd Divisions helped their Allies
win one of the closing battles of
the World War, the Americans were
IS miles northeast of Paris.
Reach Fismes Area.
Parallel columns driving north
reached the Fismes area Is miles
east of scissors and reached the
Upper Marine at two places between
Chalons and Vitry.
Troops were less than so miles
from Verdun.
The Americans and British
bridgeheads on the Seine. north
west of Paris, were welded into a
solid front of 25 to 80 miles when
the troops which crossed at Nantes
and Vernon we're joined. The assault
front pushed II miles north of the
Seine almost to the Rouen-Paris
highway.
Canadians advanced within sight
of Rouen, where Joan of Arc was
tried and burned The nearest Cana
dians were Az miles away.
Is to 25 Miles in Day.
The swift drive in the Chateau
Thierry and scissors sectors was one
of the most brilliant gains of a
single day in the whole incredible
battle record of 1t. Gen. George S.
Pattons high-speed Sd Army
All along ballooning front east
of Paris. the Americans made ad-
vances during the day of Is to 25
miles. They were within IS miles
of Sedan on the famous Ardennes
road of invasion. the same route the
Germans used to enter France in
l940 The Aisne- -Somme line is the
last great water barrier before Ger
many itself. save for the Albert Ca
nal in Belgium.
The British advanced miles north
of the Seine near Louviers, the new
est bridgehead. The Canadians
moved closest to Rouen at their river
crossing at Pont de lArche.
The capture of scissors put the
Americans in Tightening semicircle
around the forest of Compeigne
where the fate of France was signed
away in the 1910 armistice and where
the Germans capitulated in 1918.
50 Miles From Lorraine.
In the Fismes area the Americans
were but little more than so miles
from Lorraine, which the Nazis in
corporated into the Reich after
France fell.
Paris was cleared of its last Ger
man resistance. Maj Gen. Leonard
T. Gerow's American 5th Corps
seized the great LIE Bourget airfield
where Lindbergh ended his trans
Atlantic solo flight. The Mont
morency suburb was cleaned out and
the surviving Germans were driven
far beyond the French capital.
The Seine bridgeheads which point
into robot bomb row were swelling
to bursting points.
"a German broadcast said the
American advance had carried
into the streets of Chalons)
The great drive closed the Nazi
escape route across northern France
to Is miles.
One American spearhead plunged
16 miles northeast of MeauA to Gu
vergnon. These American Sd Army
units were within 10 miles of the
Forest of Compiegne. The strategic
Aisne was Is miles north of this
American force.
Arc Swinging North.
The whole 85-mile Sd Army as
sault arc east of Paris was swinging
north to within 20 miles of Epernay
and Vitry-the back door to Ver-
dun
A Reuters dispatch from Sd Army
headquarters said Vitry had been
captured. This would put the
Americans across the Upper Marne,
100 miles east of Paris and little
over so miles from Lorraine.
American fighter planes flew 800
sorties in attacks on German COM
munications all the wav ahead of the
assault through Northern France,
Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg and
into Germany. These planes found
a noticeable drop-of in enemy road
and rail traffic In the whole belt
between the Seine and the Somme.
Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery's
cautious left flank gave no indica-
(See NORTHERN FRANCE, A-5D