The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-08-18
Tanks Race Through
 Parisian Suburbs
CcOntInued from Page D

below Paris, and RamSoulllet, seven miles northwest of SC. Arnoult and a "a miles southwest of the cap llai.
 The possibility remained that Railon's rough riders might swing suddenly northward Co roll up the flank oi the German forces fleeing from the Normandy pocket, but all indications were that they were striking straight for the capital and that its fall might come at any mO- ment.
 venaome Falls
 .endome, midway between Tours and captured Orleans, fell to the onrushing Americans, completing the isolation of southwestern France from the Paris area, and other American units mopped up scattered German resistance on the orleans Paris road ujst beyond orleans.
 United Press War Correspondent Henry T. oorrell reported from the front that there were signs the Ger mans might quit Paris without a fight. declaring it an open city and falling back to the east bank of the Seine.
 An unconfirmed report broadcast by Radio Morroco said Pope Plus XII was negotiating with the bel- llkerents to save Paris from destruc- ton. as he was said to have done for Rome.
 Headquarters spokeSmen empha- sized. however. that the complete annihilation of the German armies in northern France was the prim- ary objective of Gen. Dwight D. Els- eEihower's Allied forces, rather than the capture of Paris.
 Field Marshal Gunther Won Kluge appeared to have averted the threatened destruction of his Sev- enth army in the Normandy pocket bv a masterfully-executed retreat, but his decimated decisions were being herded eastward all along the 1ss-mile front toward what might become an even greater disaster on 6ne seine rlVer me.
 offensive
 AS the Americans raced in on Paris on the southern flank. Canadian. British and other American forces were smashing eastward on the heels of the fleeing enemy in a full-scale offensive aimed at pre- venting Won Kluges army from escaping across the Seine.
 Hundreds of German tanks and motor vehicles were spotted rac- ing eastward from the Falaise- Arnentan gap late yesterday and an additional mass withdrawal was be- leged under way in the early morn ing hours today. German heavy artillery maintained a thunderous niehs-long barrage on the American lines south of the gap and the Brit 1sh to the north in an apparent at- tempt to screen the retreat.
 Tt looks like the Germans are now pulling out en masse," Gorrell reported.
 Allied armor slashed deep into the western rim of the fast-disap- pearing pocket. slaughtering rear guard units left to cover the with drawal. and strong infantry columns closed in on the German rear, squeezing the trap into an area Of Jess than 50 square miles.
 The pocket, from which the bulk O fan estimated 100000 Germans appeared to have escaped, extended on a line running roughly between Condo and Flers on the west to a tRo or three-mile gap between Argentan and Falaise, 20 miles to the east, and measured no more than i0 miles at the widest point,
 FrOmenteI Captured
 American troops pushed in about tgo miles from the southern perim- eter, capturing Fromentel. north west of Ranes, and made contact with British units along line north and northeast of Confront. At the same time, the British drove down about the same distance all along the northern rim. driving to Rapilly and St Philbert after fording the Rouvre river east of La carneille.
 The greatest threat to the re- treating Germans, however, as poised by the advancing Canadian ist Army northeast of the pocket.
 The Canadians burst across the Dives liver between Troarn and the sea, making the German posi- ton along the channel coast un- tenable. and sent other columns nallnding eastward and southeast-