The Wilmington morning star., 1944-06-11
INTENDS TO CUT
| OFF CHERB0URC;
CAPTURES TOWNS
Nazi Broadcast Says Amer
leans Is Miles South
OF Vital Port
ENEMY WITHDRAWS
Progress Continues Along
50 Mile Stretch From
Caen To Montebourg

SUPREME HEADQUARr
TIERS ALLIED EXPEDI-
TIONARY FORCE, Sunday,
June II -(P)-U. S. troops
smashed a third of the way
across the Normandy peninf
sula yesterday in a drive to
seal off the prize port of
Cherbourg and captured two
towns and a handful of vil-
lagos under cover of Allied
fighters striking from newly-
seized airfields in France.
A German broadcast plac-
ed the Americans near Monte-
bourg, only Is miles south-
east of Cherbourg, after the
Germans had withdrawn to
shorten defense lines" 4,
Allied headquarters bulletin No:
10 issued just before midnight
said "Allied progress continues
along the whole OF the beach,
head" This meant that the Am-
erican, British and Canadian
troops now were attacking heavi-
1y along a 50-mile stretch between
Caen in the east and Montebourg
in the northwest.
Gain Inland
A dispatch from the front dis
closed that the Americans, with
artillery support, had begun strik-
ing inland Friday after using the
first three days to secure their
beachheads and establish contact
with the British-Canadian forces
in the Bayeux sector, east Of the
expanded 35-mile-wide American
front. The Americans gained six
miles in their first smash inland
from the sea, and veteran troops
were spearheading the attack, the
dispatch said.
Improving weather which found
Allied fighters now hitting from
France for the first time in four
years aided the Allied forward
movement. Heavy bombers attack
ed German airfields in Normandy
and Brittany, behind the battle
line, and fighters strafed the enc
mys armored and transport
movements.
The Americans under 1t. Gen.
Omar N. Bradley captured the
small but valuable port of 1signy.
80 miles southeast Of Cherbourg,
toppled Trevieres eight miles east
of Isigny, closed in from both sides
on Carentan, six miles west OF
Isigny, and slashed Gin several
places the. main Paris reilwax
leading into Cherbourg. 4
Fighting AT Carentan
Heavy fighting ragged at CarerE
TAM the late Allied bulletin said.
The Germans had flooded the ter.
rain in that sector, causing dir
culties, a spokesman said.
Sever fighting with strong enemy
armored units also famed through
the fifth day in the Caen area of
the British-Canadian sector. A
front dispatch said Allied artillery
men had taken up positions in ?
struggle for a ridge commanding
Caen, and that engineers had been
partly successful. in the setting
of a tank trap against reinforcea
Nazi panzer units there.
SIN the Cherbourg peninsula our
advance, patrols are west Of the
main railway in several places,Y
the Allied communique said.
The apparent immediate objec-
tive of the American troops strik-
ing in the Montebourg area, =
Vichy broadcast said, was Valog
mes, the communications key te
Cherbourg. Valognes is only ID
miles southeast of the big port
Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgcrne
cry, Allied ground commander, iiaS
established advance headquarters
in France and has visited thu
troops in the front lines. He wa@
reported well satisfied with deves
lopments.
The Eighth and Ninth U. S. All
Forces flew nearly 1000 sortieS
during the day in their relentless
battering of German positions
throughout Normandy and beyond
Continued on Pare -Four; Col. AN