July 27, 1944

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, JULY 27, 1944:

 

Charleston, West Virginia                           Thursday Morning, July 27, 1944

Americans Maul

Crack Divisions

14 Towns Fall to Attacks

67 Tank-Led Troops

SUPREME HEADQUARTERS,

AEP, July 27.—(Thursday)—(AP)_

A great combined American tank and Infantry assault smashed through the German first and second defense lines and into rear artillery positions west of St. Lo Wednesday, scoring gains up to four miles deep through a four-mile-wide breach in the Nazi positions.

At least 14 towns, including two Important road junctions, fell- in the drive, which outflanked the stubborn Nazi line running northwestward

to the coast.

On the eastern flank of the Allies' Normandy beachhead the British- Canadian offensive bumped to a standstill against the toughest defense belt yet encountered, and press dispatches reaching London early today reported a serious setback in the Orne-Odon wedge where the British were said to have been hurled from the town of Esquay and strategic Hill 111. This dispatch remained without headquarters confirmation.

The new American push in the second day was "marked by a precision and cooperation among armored infantry, artillery and air units not reached by any American army thus far in the war," Associated Press Correspondent Wes Gallagher wrote from the front late last night.

Warsaw Flanked

By Russ Assault

Narva Captured in North;

Other Attacks Gain

LONDON, July 27.—(Thursday)—

(AP)—

Russian troops, having reached the Wisla (Vistula) river on a 30-mile front in central Poland, fought today for bridgeheads on the western bank which would outflank Warsaw, 7 miles to the northwest, and place them across the last large

natural defense line guarding Germany, 140 miles away.

Florence Fall

Expected Soon

8th Army Smashes Within

Eight Miles of City

ROME, July 26.(AP)—

Spearheaded by New Zealand veterans of Cassino, 8th army forces smashed today within eight miles of the open city of Florence, which was expected to fall without a struggle once its outer defenses were breached.

The Berlin radio said July 1 that Adolf Hitler had declared Florence an open city to protect its" irreplaceable cultural values," and there has since been no report of

Allied planes having attacked the city's rail yards.)

New Zealand tanks and infantry, stabbing forward five miles in two days of bitter fighting against Nazi parachute troops, were reported closing on\ the highway town of San Casciano, less than eight miles south of Florence. Other 8th army columns advanced steadily along a 30-mile front below the city, renowned as the birthplace of modern art.

Nazis Report Offensive

(A German military commentator broadcast that a "full-scale" Allied attack was launched south of Florence on Tuesday and that after hard fighting Nazi troops "systematically detached themselves from the enemy in a northern direction."

Another enemy broadcast said the Allies also had opened a strong new offensive along the Adriatic coast above Ancona.)

Guam Invaders

Thrust Inland

 Two U.S. armored columns
streamed southward in drives west of
St. Lo yesterday as the new American
offensive in this sector advanced
up to eight miles.
One armored spearhead pushed on
from St. Gilles, 3i miles west of St. Lo,
captured Canisy, and drove 54 miles from
St. Gilles to Les Mesnil Herman, where
it cut the important St. Lo-Avranches
road.
The other armored column broke
through from Marigny, seven miles west
of St. Lo, to the St. Lo-Cputances road
after meeting heavy opposition. It progressed
to within five miles of Coutances,
which controls a network of eight roads
near the west coast.


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