The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-09-02
interpreting
The War
BY KIRKE L. SIMPSON )
Associated Press War Avail,

Associated Press War Analv,.
Ripped and torn by lung;,.
Allied columns. remnants nj 81. st
tered German armies in Fr.n'
are in confused flight eastward
tween the Channel coast ona w.
Swiss frontier at pace that ANU VIII me
ally forbids a new defensive st.' u,
anywhere short of the Reich i s.a1e
The Berlin-admitted "detssI E'
ment' maneuver has lost all SAUL
blance of an orderly mi,; selli'
movement. 1t is obviously l eaviry
behind great segrement of oa
powerful armies now shreddoT ID.e
the Allies to military impota,a w
There was every reason to balis'
that the Belgian border had be
crossed by American troops u esn
Sedan. and that soon German fros
tiers leading to the Upper Rhm.
would be reached and passed
test out the actual strength y,
the Nazi West Wall before fl, VI
ing enemy forces in France ~.
even reach it for refuge or to b u%a
hold it against the brewing Anoe
lean power thrust into the ST..
brucken gap. '
The rolling Allied sweep forwa,,
along the whole front was movjns
at pace that apparently left eves
Supreme Allied Headquarters IN
the dark for hours as 10 il.
full penetrations. Bulletins from tSs
field announcing new captures ~
critical points al the way from
the area of LIE Havre at the Sem.
mouth to the Rhine-Marne canal
linking those French and Germa,
rivers at Strasbourg overlook ana
passed Allied official reports On
progress time and again.
A scene of utter confusion anon,
German elements bent on notbms
but escape from the Allied ava.
lanche was drawn by press eve.
witnesses. There is no comparab.
German Allied Or Russian spec
tacle of total military disaster in
all the records of this war Or Of
the battles of a quarter of a Gen.
fury ago over the same ground
across which Allied forces now ara
| sweeping.
The pace was so fast that il
| defied accurate mapping of til.
front. So far as it was possib.
to trace Allied movements, how.
ever, it was clear that while Field
| Marshal Montgomry's British.
Canadian wing on the left was busy
, trapping and mopping up the coas
tai area from LIE Havre to the
Somme mouth and outflanking the
robot bomb coast to Calais and
beyond, Bradley's American army
group was knitting into Belgium
through the Ardennes and storm.
ing toward the Saarbrucken gap
into Germany from newly won
strong points like Sedan, Verdm,
St. Michel and Commercy.
They were Threatening such 20.
tential Nazi strongholds as Mons.
Charleroi and even Brussels
through the Sambre bypass in the
northwestern Ardennes that
points the way into the plains Of
central Belgium.
To the south Patch's Franco
American Seventh army was fast
coming up the Rhone valley, viz
tually in sight of its Lyon metro.
polls or in a position to wheel
northeastward and join PattonS
Third army for the assault Of the
Saarbrucken Belfort gap. That
seemed still the major Allied de-
sign in the fast moving action
largely hopping up operation
against meagre German resistance
with no sign whatever Of Nazi IN.
| tention to stand and fight short Of
I fortification within German from
tiers.
| The indicated main Allied assam
front upon Germany centefng al
Saarbrucken could intensity Aus
trian wavering as Nazl captive
satellite. There are rumors
growing unrest in Austria to maiCn
that in Hungary, thus Threatening
the Hitlerites with complete inter-
nal collapse on their southern from
before an escape from Italy ann
the Balkan peninsula could /"
offaofoI