The Wilmington morning star., 1944-06-07
LOSSES REPORTED
AS VERY LIGHT
CONTINUED from Page One)

contradicting a German high com
mand claim shortly after midnigh,
that the defenders had annihilateo
strong air-borne units.
The Germans expressed fear Of
additional operations and saio
fresh and strong naval units ap.
proa ched the -Du11kerque
area (northeast of the Normandy
bridgehead this morning"
'Under cover of heavy naval
guns, the Allies are bringing III
fresh troops" said a DNB dispatch
broadcast from Berlin.
The German news agency declar-
ed Allied parachute troops landed
between Carentan and Bayeux, q
miles apart in the western zone
of operations, ''as well as air-borne
and sea-borne troops, have been
driven back in very heavy fight.
ing"
(CBS quoted a Berlin broadcast
as saying that "a strong form.
atom of Allied parachute troops
had gained Judgments on both sides
of the road from Carentan to Va.
lognes, a. highway junction point II
miles southeast of Cherbourg.
"a BIC correspondent was quot
ed by the Blue network as saying
Allied forces had pushed 10 miles
inland in the Caen area)
Swedish correspondents in Berlin
reported tina the German high com.
mand expected new and larger
landings" overnight and said the
invasion front stretched more thar
200 miles from Calais to the chan
mel islands. Several divisions were
said to be fighting in the big
bridgehead, in some cases hand tc
hand.
Hitler TO Speak
A Stockholm dispatch to the
Daily Mail said Hitler was expect
ed to speak sooa somewhere in
the West" as personal commando
of anti-iavasion operations.
Ferried across the white-cappeo
Channel by a great armada of a..
900 ships and thousands of lighter
craft and screened from above by
laundering fleet of 1000 Allied
warplanes, American, British ano
Canadian troops hit the beaches
along a front of roughly 100 miles
between cherbourg and LIE Havre
in the first cloudy hours of day
light and swept swiftly inland.
Allied losses in the initial as
sault were much lighter than hac
been anticipated and there was ar
unmistakable air of optimism a
the headquarters of Gen. Dwight
D. Eisenhower, supreme Allied
commander. It was disclosed tha
D-Day originally had been set for
Monday, but that bad weather fore
ed a days postponement.
Tonigh the International 11afor-
nation bureau, Germa propaganda
agency reported the Allies held a
bridgehead about IS miles broad
and several kilometers" deep be-
tween Villers and Trouville. Trou-
vile is nine miles directly south
across the Seine estuary from LIE
Havre.
German reports from the Spanish
frontier said Allied troops were in
full possession of Honfleur, SIX
miles southeast of LIE Havre across
the Seine Estuary, and were fan
ming out south and east toward
Pont Audemer, ranging from III
to IS miles inland.)
Capture Bridges =
Prime Minister Churchill an
nounced that Allied ali borne
troops had captured sever a |
strategic bridges inside France be-
fore the enemy could destroy them
and that "there is even fighting
proceeding in the own of Caen."
Cae7 is nine miles inland near the
base of the Cherbourg peninsula,
west and slightly south OF LIE
Have.
"Air-borne troops are well estab-
lished and the followups are pro-
ceeding with very much less loss
than we expected Churchill told
a cheering house Of Commons in
his second report Of the day
Many dangers and difficulties
which this time last night ap-
peared extremely formidable are
behind us. This operation is
proceeding in thoroughly salts
factory manner"
The German-controlled P s
radio broadcast 1act-n1lnute
flash from the battlefield" early
tonight, saying that ga vicious bat
tie is raging north of Rouen be-
tween powerful Allied paratroop
formations and German anti-inva-
sion forces" Rouen is Al miles
from the coast, east of LIE Havre.
In an earlier report, Churchill
told Commons that the Allied as
sault was proceeding according to
plan-and what plan! We hape
to furnish the enemy with suc-
cession Of surprises during the
| course Of the fighting"