The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-07-10
By LOUIS F. KEEMLE NYnlfaA Preaa War EdikOrl


 at the bending German line barring the way to Paris today while Rus sias armies swept forward on their march toward Berlin all along the line from the Baltic States to the Bug river in southeastern Poland.
 The British second army pressed on to the German positions along the Orne river southwest of Caen, advancing nearly three-quarters of Q mile in a quick push that envelop- ed 'Eterville and carried them to within a mile of the Orne at that point.
 The lower part of the river, where 1t enters Caen and flows on to the sea, had already been cleared for a stretch of six miles along its north ern bank.
 The focal point of enemy resist ance, which was strong, was be- tween the Odon and Orne southwest of Caen. The Canadians had driven two bridgeheads across the Odon near Its confluence with the Orne short distance from the outskirts of Caen, and threatened to trap Ger man force between their positions and the British advancing past Et- erville.
 The liberation of Caen not only overcame the principal German stronghold on the railroad and high way from Cherbourg to Paris, but gave the Allies possession of another first class port to supplement Cher bourg in the movement of men and material into France. Caen, Frances seventh port, had Q peace- time capacity of 100000 tons of cargo a year.
 At the western end of the Ill., mile battle line in Normandy the American First Army was making good progress in its drive past the hase of the Cherbourg Peninsula. One column advanced more than a mile south of newly-captured La Haye-Du Puits, another took Le Desert and Cavigny, three miles southwest and three southeast, res- pectively, of St. Jean-De Daye, and third drove down the Carentan- Periers road to within five miles of Periers.
 On the front in southeastern Poland, the First White Russian Army smashed through to the east ern bank of the Bug river in an advance of 40 miles beyond Kowel. The Germans were being2 pushed bask verywhere along a front of about $50 miles running northward to Dagavpils (Dvinsk) and their intermediate defense line guarding Poland. East Prussia and the Baltic states had been shattered.
 The Germans were making their stoutest resistance at Wilno, capital of Soviet Lithuania. Street fighting there was in its third day. The Germans had thrown five fresh regiments into the battle win orders o stand to the last man, but the Russians heized the railway station and airfield yesterday.
 Wilno was being fanked by columns of the Third White Rus sian Army which were driving into Lithuania south of the city. One arm of this advance drove to within less than 70 miles of East Prussia with the capture of the four-way railroad junction of Lida. 55 miles south of Wilno.
 erman broadcasts reported Nol- ent fighting at Utena, Lithuania, which indicated that the Russians had broken through the Wilno-Dau- gavpils line and were headed for the Gulf of Riga, l25 miles away. threatening to cut of all the Ger man forces in the upper Baltic Sea.
 On the Italian front the Germans maintained their desperate resist ance in front of their Gothic Line" from Pisa through. Florence to Rimini. Opposition was particularly stiff in defense of Livorno on the west coast. However, American troops captured Volterra, key out- post southeast of Livorno and ad- vanced four miles in a threat to turn the coastal defenses about 10 miles belof the part. Italian sources said patriots were fighting the Ger mans inside Livorno.
 An Allied communique, describing the advance beyond Volterra as "a significant wedge into the enemy positions between the sea and Pog- gibonsi, said hard fighting was in progress all along the front. The Germans were able to make some counter attacks, particularly in the area of Arrezzo in the center of the peninsula, and gained ground which front dispatches said was regained by the Eighth Army.
 In the Pacific, American forces had completed the conquest of Sai. pan island in the Marianas after g days of the fiercest fighting of the war against Japan. Possession of the island established United States forces within bombing range of Japan and the Philippines.
 With two large airfields and deep water harbors. Saipan constituted . springboard for further amphib. ious operations.
 Admiral Chester VI Ninaikx an.