Evening star., 1945-01-08
Morylond's Share of Fund
For Roads Is S4,7o1,532
By THOMAS r. HENRY,

Allied landings on the coast oi
Normandy on D day were made by
troops of the 21st Army group under
Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery.
They consisted of American, Brit
ish and Canadian troops The larg-
est single contingent was the Amer
ican First Army which consisted
during the first two weeks of ten
full-strength divisions, including
two air-borne and one armored, to-
gether with lot of auxiliary troops
-armored battalions, antiaircraft
quartermaster, engineer, chemical,
psychological warfare and other
units. These were under the COM
mand Of 1t. Gen. Omar N. Bradley.
Gen. Montgomery continued in
actual command of the entire group
up to the time of the First Army's
breakthrough along the ST. Lo-Per-
riers road late in July. From east of
Caen to the Cherbourg peninsula
coast at Granville it had been one
great operation up to this time. But
his function was that of co-ordina-
ton, for Gen. Bradley was the ac-
tive commander of the American
troops. BY this time the First Army
had increased enormously. The
overall tactics were dictated by Gen
Montgomery.
Reads Magazine on d Day.
remember him on the rather
chilly afternoon of D day. He was
sitting on the lawn of a farm home
overlooking fields stacked with new
mown hay, dressed in an old pair of
corduroy pants and roll-neck
sweater, reading a magazine. He
had perfect confidence, he said, in
Gen. Bradley and Gen. Dempsey
who had been in direct command of
the invasion. He had laid down his
plan of battle to the best of his
ability. He hoped for the best
If anything went wrong there was
nothing he could do about it now,
and worrying certainly would not
help. He had nothing better to do
at the moment than sit on the lawn
and read magazine. This was
perhaps one of the finest examples
of sheer nerve in history.
Gen. Montgomery remained the
commander of all ground forces in
France up to the time of the break
through. Still his position was not
that of ground force deputy to the
supreme commander, such as had
been the position of Gen., Sir Har-
old Alexander in Sicily and Italy.
Different Campaign Pattern.
The pattern of this campaign was
different. In Sicily there had been
essentially two separate actions
with the width of the island be-
tween them. The British under
Gen. Montgomery had landed on
the east coast and proceeded to
fight their way north through Cata-
leans had landed on the southeast
coast and were pushing their way
northward and eastward towards
the same goal The two forces did
not encounter each other to any
great extent, until Messina was
reached.
The same general pattern had
been followed in Italy, the Amer
leans landing on the west coast
and the British on the east. The
forces were separated by a range
of mountains. There was relatively
little contact between them, so far
as the ground units were concerned
But Gen. Alexander had the over
all direction of both sides under
Gen. Eisenhower.
In France there were not the
separate actions. The Americans
and the British were linked in one
continuous line moving in a COM
mon direction-and for a long
time moving at snails pace until
the back of German resistance was
broken.
Intergrated Unit.
American and British ground
forces had to fight as a closely in
tegrated unit. Territorial lines be-
came very vague and forces were
shifted back and forth, as around
the stubborn little city of Wire
which one day was a British OBJ
jective, tomorrow an American OBJ
jective, and perhaps the next day a
British objective again.
This has remained the essential
pattern up to the present. But after
the breakthrough the two COM
mands tended to drift apart, the
British squeezing the Germans from
the north and east, the Americans
from the north. south and west,
until the foreward elements of the
two forces contacted each other
again across the gap at Cambois,
essentially closing the jaws of a
trap.
The actual first contact was rath-
er dramatic. A Polish armored di-
vision of the British command had
pushed too far ahead, was out of
contact with its own rear, and was
running short of gasoline and am
munition. 1t signaled to the
Americans across the gap, who pro-
ceeded to rush a supply train
through the disintegrating Ger
man Army. which. was squirming to
get out Of the contracting trap. The
maneuver was entirely successful.
U. S. Third Army's Job.
In the meantime the United States
I'd Army, some of whose elements
had been In France since early in
July, had been activated and pro-
.ceeded to operate to the west of the
1st Army. It's essential job was to
overrun Brittany and get possession